Daily Devo
The Little Things Can Be The Hardest
By: Lisa Boisvert
Thursday, May 2, 2024
2 Kings Chapter 5 is a story about Naaman, who was the commander of the king of Aram’s army. Naaman was a great and powerful man, but he contracted leprosy. In those days leprosy was an incurable, deadly disease, so Naaman lost hope and became desperate. Following the advice of a Jewish slave girl, Naaman traveled to Israel to seek the prophet Elisha for a cure.
Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself 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 hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy." 2 Kings 5:10-11
Naaman should have been delighted with Elisha's instructions, because the cure was such a simple thing to do. But Naaman's own expectations became his stumbling block. Because he expected something bigger, Naaman almost returned to Aram uncured rather than do the little thing the Lord commanded. If not for his servant’s prodding, Naaman would have missed out on God’s blessing.
Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. 2 Kings 5:13-14
At times, we can all be a bit like Naaman... Have we missed out on a blessing because we failed to do the little things that God asked? Have we let a small thing stumble us because we had higher expectations? In a crisis, we call out to Jesus and expect Him to bring us through it. We KNOW that He can, so we tell Him that we'll do whatever He requires of us. But the Lord doesn't always work in big, dramatic ways. He may ask us to take a small step of faith, or to only do something that we think is relatively easy.
God’s ways are not our ways, and there is wisdom in those words from Naaman’s servant. If the Lord directs us to do a little thing, we should do it! Otherwise, we may miss out on a huge blessing!