Editor’s Note:  The AMI QT devotionals from Aug. 9-16 are provided by Cami King, a staff at Journey Community Church (Raleigh).

Devotional Thoughts for Today

2 Kings 7:15-20 

¹⁵ They went after them to the Jordan, and behold, all the way was full of clothes and equipment which the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. Then the messengers returned and told the king.

¹⁶ So the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. Then a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now the king appointed the royal officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate; but the people trampled on him at the gate, and he died just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. ¹⁸ It happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two measures of barley for a shekel and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, will be sold tomorrow about this time at the gate of Samaria.” ¹⁹ Then the royal officer answered the man of God and said, “Now behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.” ²⁰ And so it happened to him, for the people trampled on him at the gate and he died.

We talked yesterday about the joy that comes from experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises in our lives. Often times we have to wait – sometimes until we reach eternity with Him – to experience the manifestation of promises God has made. But there are those precious and holy moments when, in our own lifetime, we see God make good on His word.

On the converse side, there are people for whom this is not the case. The king’s royal officer (as an extension of the king himself) was not given the privilege of enjoying the blessing of God’s promise fulfilled for Israel (bread in the midst of famine). Because of doubt in God’s promises and in God Himself, the official missed out on partaking in God’s blessing. This is not the first time we see this happening in scripture. When God’s people lose heart and lose hope, we can sometimes cut ourselves off from experiencing the fullness of the work that God is doing in, through, and around us.

If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you’ve probably heard someone talk about “missing out on God’s best” in your life. What this means is, regardless of what our reasoning may be, we can (like the king and his royal officer) position ourselves in such a way that we are unable to partake fully in the blessings that God so desperately desires to bestow upon us. More often than not this happens because we are unwilling to let go of our own imaginings of what can be, our own plans for the future, and ultimately our own understanding.

One pastor tells the following story – “My family and I recently got back from a cross country trip to LA, and in the name of preserving our sanity, we gave our kids a bundle of Apple products to play with on the trip. My old iPhone became my son’s obsession (Nothing makes you feel like a better parent than being at the Grand Canyon and all your 7yr old can talk about is how much he needs to charge his iPhone). To the point where as soon as we got home, we had to take it away and hide it from him. Because we love him, we took the phone away, before it destroyed his ability to enjoy anything else. The sad part is that my son has something better than my old iPhone. He has me. He’s my son, I’m his dad. And even though I fall short in so many ways, our relationship is worth so much more than an old iPhone. I’m the one who even made it possible for him to have an iPhone in the first place.”

Much like children, we can hold too tightly to our own way of doing and seeing and risk missing out on God’s best for us. Of course, there is grace and God will be faithful even when we are not. Yet with that said, the abovementioned sentiments should give us pause. May we not hinder ourselves in any ways from experiencing God’s best. May we hold our lives with open hands, willing to trust in God’s way over and against our own.

Prayer: Gracious Father, help me to follow you faithfully and always position myself to receive Your best for me. Help to lean not on my own understanding or my own desires or my own ways of doing things. Help me to lean exclusively on You and Your power and willingness to fulfill your good promises to me.

Bible Reading for Today: Ephesians 2