ON LIMITATIONS....

Hi there!

Happy new month! How's the month looking so far? I pray that God will be with you in this month and guide your steps. 

Welcome to today's gist. 

So a little while ago, I was reading 2 Kings 5 and something struck me in verse one. Here's what it says; "Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram (Syria), was considered a great man by his king, and was highly respected because through Naaman the Lord had given victory to Aram (Syria). He was also a man of courage, but he was a leper." (Amplified Version)

When I read that verse, I had to read it again. The verse begins by listing Naaman's strong suits: he was Commander of the Army of Syria, he was considered a great man by his king, he was highly respected, through him God had given victory to Syria, he was a man of courage. BUT! He was a leper. When I read the verse again, I decided to read it backwards. Here's what is sounds like: "Naaman was a leper, BUT he was a man of courage, through him God had given victory to Syria, he was highly respected, he was considered a great man by his king, he was the Commander of the Army of Syria." 

When I read it that way, the thought that came to my mind was that all these great things about Naaman, his many achievements, were all achieved while he was a leper; the Bible doesn't tell us that after all these things he became leprous, it says that he was a leper, and you can adduce that he was a leper while doing all these great things. 

Now, leprosy is certainly not a palatable condition. On one hand there's the great pain that comes with the condition, the slow destruction of limbs, on the other hand, there's the stigma from society concerning lepers, the Bible shows us that lepers would have to ring bells while passing and shout "unclean"(Leviticus 13:45), probably so that 'healthy' people would move out of their way. In the midst of all of this, while dealing with such a terrible disease, Naaman achieved great feats! 

When I read this verse it was a source of great encouragement and challenge for me. I'd been feeling forlorn and thinking of all the things that were not going well for me and how if they were, I'd be able to do certain things and achieve certain feats. But through this passage, God let me see that I absolutely do not have to wait until things "fall into place" like I want it to before I do the things I should; in the midst of all the not-so-right things, I can do really good things, I can start from where I'm at and trust that even if things never align the way I want them to, I can still do the things I'm supposed to do. 

And that's my encouragement to you today. You're more than the things that seem to hold you back, in spite of all the things going awry, you can be and do all that you're meant to, you can begin in faith today and watch God help you do the things you are meant to do. 

I pray that God helps us to begin to do the things we are called to do without waiting for conditions to be perfect first. 

NLS HOT GIST: You know the saying "quiet before the storm"? Na there we dey for our Externship journey. We're starting Law Office attachment next week and it's going to be even more demanding than the Court attachment was. If you sha know people in Law School, pray intensely for us, we need it!

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned. See you next week. 

Love, 

Achenyo.