Sometimes when we think of God and how powerful, magnificent, and overwhelming he can be, we believe that he is going going to require something just as big of us. Today, however, I read a passage in 2 Kings about a man named Naaman and his skin disease. You see, he traveled to Israel to seek out a prophet named Elisha as is instructed to do by the king of Aram.
If you’ve never read the story, he finds Elisha at his home after an encounter with the king of Israel. Upon meeting with Elisha at his home, Elisha instructs him to “go wash seven times in the Jordan river.” When Naaman heard this, he got angry. He was upset that Elisha would ask him to wash his body in the Jordan and not rivers in Damascus. He was angry that Elisha didn’t come out of his home to call down a dominant display of God’s abilities and heal him at that moment.
He almost lost out.
In Naaman’s anger, he almost missed out on God’s blessing. Luckily he had brought servants with him on this trip to Israel. The bible says the servants asked him, “if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” Upon hearing this, Naaman decided he was going to listen to the prophet of God. He went down to the Jordan river and began dipping himself seven times. After coming out of the Jordan river the seventh time, his skin disease is healed.
Naaman was expecting a mighty move of God in his life to bring healing, but instead, he was asked to do something very small and very simple.
How many times in our daily life do we look for a mighty move of God but get discouraged in the simple? Sometimes he brings peace, healing, and his presence through the simple. Not every time when God moves does he do so in a pillar of fire from heaven. We can sometimes get caught up in the mountaintop experiences or when God is doing something significant in our lives, and when he turns to ask us to do something small, we can get angry. We know our God is big, and we can get a “high” coming off of those powerful moments in our life where He does something incredible. But more often than not, he is moving in the small.
Can I encourage you today as the world struggles with the pandemic and isolation and the thought that our society may never be the same that God can do mighty things, but today he may just be asking you to do something small?
Start something small.
I’m sure you’ve heard many times that if you start doing small things, over time, you can look back, and you can see significant change. Whether it be exercise and eating right, working on a project, or reading a book each day as you form that habit and do a little at a time, you can look back to see progress. God’s kingdom is no different. Begin today doing something small for humanity and look back at the lives you could impact. Grab a devotional and begin doing that and look back at the growth you will see and the change in your life. Pick up that hobby and then look back at the master craftsman you’ve become.
Now is a perfect time to start something small that could have a lasting impact on yourself spiritually, emotionally, or physically. Begin doing things for others today that could have a lasting effect on the world around you. When you do small things, it also shows God that when the time comes and He has something big that you are ready for it.