Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional by Kenton Cheek

2 July 2024

Reading From II Kings 5-8

“Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, washyourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his handover the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.” —II Kings 5:10-12

Naaman was an important man who thought that the instructions given by the prophet of Yahweh were surely too simple to work. Sometimes we just need to trust and obey even when we do not fully understand what God is doing in our situation. Usually we would rather rely on what we see as the best solutions that mankind offers: education, funding, science, healthcare, technology, whatever it might be. We reach for these first because they are comfortable and familiar.

These resources are not bad or wrong in and of themselves, in fact God can use these tools to provide for His children, but we must be reminded that He is the source and that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. Humans gravitate toward what they can see and touch physically and what we can comprehend. God is beyond that.

Naaman was eventually persuaded to follow the simple instructions from God’s spokesperson and was healed. Likewise, we must humble ourselves, trust and obey, even when the godly solution seems too simplistic to work.

“God give us the faith and courage we need to trustYou and Your plan even when we can’t wrap our heads around how everything will work out. Give us grace to trust You more. Amen.”

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:2-4