SELAH Daily Devotions!
And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 2 KINGS 7:3-5
Once again, God’s people find themselves in quite a predicament. NO! It was NOT THE DEVIL; BUT GOD, Who allowed the enemy to cage in the stiff-necked rebellious people of God! Nothing came in and nothing went out! The entire city was on lock-down!
Just wondering, has your life ever been so jacked up that you felt like you were physically, emotionally and spiritually constipated? I’m pretty sure that right about now, the wind-chill factor of the atmospheric condition in the building has shifted, huh? So I apologize for getting too real for some of you! But has your mind ever been so overwhelmed with so much stuff that your perspective became distorted by issues far beyond your control? Even if you could, you didn’t know how to get out? Have you ever been just stuck; can’t take in nothing and can’t move nothing out? Basically, your whole life seems to be shut down? Sometimes, we all need a good ol’ dose of HOLY GHOST castor oil to jump-start our lives!
God sent The Prophet Elisha to warn the people that calamity was heading their way. We tend to forget that while God is longsuffering and graciously gives us time to get it right, He is also The Righteous Judge! Like some folk today, the people were looking to government leadership to get them out of their mess. But King Jehoram couldn’t help himself! So he rent his royal garments and clothed himself in mourning garments, attempting to convince the people that even if he didn’t know how to help, at least he was concerned for them! Uuumm sound uncomfortably familiar?
YET, when Elisha brought him a WORD from God, like some of us, when we don’t like the message, Jehoram decided to kill the messenger! But if you’re really walking with God, even in midst of a miserable situation, God will put limitations on what the enemy is able to do. It really doesn’t matter what your enemy desires to do to you, God Is Still in Control!
Ofttimes, in scripture, leprosy is symbolic of sin. Some sins can be secret, or at least we like to think so, but some is like leprosy, shows up where everybody can see it. You can’t dress it up or cover it up. It’s just out there, in plain view so everybody knows you messed up! Have you ever felt rejected to the point that some folk avoided you like a plague, forcing you into exile? Aren’t you glad that Jesus ain’t afraid to touch you right where you’re hurting the most! No matter what you done, God still keeps calling out to you, ‘Come unto me, draw near to me, and I’ll draw near to you”!
According to today’s text, one of the lepers spoke up, “Why are we sitting here until we die? We all in the same jacked up situation! But since we got is each other, why don’t we at least come into some sort of agreement with each other? They began evaluating the situation and looking at their options. Option No. 1, “If we go into the city, there’s people but ain’t no food. We won’t die by ourselves, but we still gonna die!” Option No. 2, if we just stay here in this place we’re accustomed to, it’s familiar, but it’s still the place of no hope and no change! If we just keep doing what we’ve always done, then we gonna keep getting what we’ve always got! That’s insanity!
Option No. 3, “Surrender to the Syrian army”. Now, personally, I don’t think this would’ve been my choice, at least not right off the cuff! I mean, turning yourself over to the very ones that God was using to punish His people? Yet, sometimes, we miss the answer because it don’t look like what we’ve been expecting! But Baby, “jus cause it looks like you’re down to nothing; doesn’t mean that God is not up to something”! We still got options!
Not knowing what they were about to encounter, the lepers made a decision to do something! When they made a decision to step out on faith, they found out that God had already gone before them. Hence, while you trying to figure it out, God has already worked it out”! God had made the Syrian Army to hear “the noise’; supposing it was a great army coming after them, they got scarred and broke camp to escape The Armies of The Lord. They didn’t see nobody, but the Bible says, they heard something. #Didjaheardat?
Even when you can’t hear God’s Voice, God can still speak to your enemies! And, suddenly, when God gets through speaking to them, they’ll drop everything they have and all you have to do is to show up in the right place, at the right time to pick up the spoil! Our God is still able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than you can ask or think.
And when you don’t know what to do, find yourself a promise in The Word to stand on while you’re waiting for God to show out! The ol’ saints used to say it like this, ‘if you take one step, he’ll take two!’ Sounds like they knew that the Lawd will make a way somehow!’ You may not be able to understand why you’re going thru, but trust 2 know that God has already gone before you to open up a way out of no way!
Children, even if you’re scarred, be not dismayed, come on; bust a move anyhow, trusting that God will take care of you! If you can’t get up, then crawl, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t raise your hand, then move your finger, DO SOMETHING!
SELAH!
Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!
Ann Caffee
SELAH Daily Devotions 