Simple Advice

February 5, 2019

DAILY READING

2 Kings 5:1-14
This weekend’s reading: Revelation 3:1-6

FIELD NOTES
I was complaining about something that had been weighing on me to a colleague. They looked at me and asked lovingly, “Have you prayed about it as much as you’ve talked about it?” Such simple advice I hadn’t yet tried. But sure enough, through prayer I was able to overcome the burden.
 
Namaan is the commander of the Aram army, who arrives in Israel expecting the powerful Israelite King to heal him. Instead a humble prophet, a prophet who won’t even meet Namaan himself, sends a lowly “nobody” messenger with advice. Namaan is insulted by the simple advice he gets: Go wash in the river!
 
But when he washes, he finds himself clean and he’s ultimately converted to the Israelite faith in the one true God.
 
Sometimes we expect things to be complicated, and thus find it difficult to believe God chooses to work in simple ways.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FIELD

• If you could boil down the gospel to one simple sentence, what would it be?

FAMILY FIELD TALK

• Just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. Talk about this concept as a family.

PRAYER
God, we seek you for our strength, hope, and healing, but sometimes we are blind to the fact that you may be sending it through another human being right in front of us. Open our eyes to see your glory in the eyes of our neighbor, and enable us to seek out simple acts of love for them. Amen.