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Wednesday, August 3, 2022

What is Daily Devotions to God Mean to You?

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2022


TEXT: 2 Kings 7:3-20


3. Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other.


4. “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”


5. So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!


6. For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attacks us!” they cried to one another.


7. So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.


8. When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it.


9. Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.”


10. So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!”


11. Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.


12. The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, “I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture they city.”


13. One of his officers replied, “We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it will no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us.”


14. So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king send scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army.


15. They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it.


16. Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that six quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the lord had promised.


17. The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house.


18. The man of God had said to the king, “By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.”


19. The king’s officer had replied, “That couldn’t happen even if the lord opened the windows of heaven!” And the man of God had said, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!”


20. And so it was, for the people trampled him to death as the gate!


(New Living Translation Holy Bible)


TOPIC: UNBELIEF HAS A PRICE TAG


Many African countries, especially in the West African sub-region, are facing their greatest existential threats, especially the Christians. These threats are the result of ongoing acts of terrorism threatening to swallow us all. Imagine your pastor coming up during Sunday service to announce: “Tomorrow by this time all the terrorists will no longer be in existence!” Most worshippers will think the pastor is either joking or has a psychological problem.


In the middle of a famine crisis, Prophet Elisha announced that in 24 hours there would be surplus food that the nation may not be able to contain. The king’s servant did not only disbelieve but he mocked God: “Even if the LORD should open the floodgates of heavens, could this happen?”


God honored His Word and Elisha and the unbelieving mocking servant of the king paid the supreme price of unbelief: he died! Don’t just write off your pastor’s pronouncements, check them out with God first.


QUESTION: Do you know that most times when God speaks, it almost never makes sense to the human mind?


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, open my eyes, increase my understanding and fill me with the grace to discern Your will in every situation I find myself, Amen.



            

Remain Blessed

ECWA Food For The Day, 2022.

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