| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Christian community” Our Bible verse for today: “Aram had gone on raids and brought back from the land of Israel a young girl who served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease.” 2 Kings 5:2-3 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Reject self-pity” This morning I want to return us to the story of Naaman from yesterday’s devotional. There’s an important person in that story who is often overlooked, and whose role in the outcome goes unnoticed. It’s the servant girl. We know almost nothing about her except that she was a young Jewish girl from Israel who was captured by the army of Aram and brought back to serve as a slave. From that point forward, her life would be one of captivity and servitude – that’s all she had to look forward to. So, it would be reasonable to expect that she would be resentful and sullen. Probably, out of necessity, she would do her job, serve her mistress well, maybe even paste a phony smile on her face and appear to be happy or even grateful but surely, she would secretly harbor resentment and bitterness over her circumstances, wallowing in self-pity. But that’s not the way this reads. Instead, the passage paints a picture of a dedicated servant who cared about her master enough to speak-up when she thought she knew of a possible solution to his problem. She didn’t have to do that. She could have secretly relished the fact that Naaman had leprosy, and even though she knew about Elisha and his power to heal, she could have withheld that information. Self-pity does that to people. It makes them self-absorbed, bitter, and resentful. All too often when our personal circumstances are less than ideal, the temptation is for us to become excessively focused on ourselves and our own circumstances, and even to wallow in self-pity over it. When we do that, we become unaware of, or insensitive to, or simply unconcerned about, what’s going on in the lives of others around us. The servant girl could have been self-absorbed; she could have wallowed in self-pity; but she didn’t. Instead, she chose to focus on helping someone else, and that resulted in a mighty movement of God, which ended up being recorded in the Bible for people to read about for thousands of years. A good Christian community is made up of people who, despite their own trying circumstances, continue to be aware of and attentive to those around them. They take their eyes off of themselves and focus instead on being a blessing to others. I know life can sometimes be hard. But I encourage all of us to reject self-pity and to stay focused on others instead. God bless, Pastor Jim (Join us at Oak Hill Baptist Church every Sunday at 10:00. Join us in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you are a shut-in, join us online at http://www.YouTube.com/oakhillbaptistcrossville) |
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