Daily
Devotional

A couple days ago, I defrosted my freezer in the garage. It was such a good feeling to have it frost-free and clean. Sometime before, I had not closed the door all the way and once-frozen berries had spilled all over the front of the shelves, but now I had finally gotten rid of those stains!

When I was finished cleaning, I plugged the freezer back in, and a bit later returned the frozen foods which had been temporarily stored in an ice chest and my kitchen freezer. To my dismay, the next day I discovered that things were not as cold as they should have been. In fact, all the food seemed to be thawing! I could not believe that my eight-year-old freezer had died already! I checked all the plugs and the electrical box (hoping I knew what I was looking for), and then rechecked them two or three more times. Finally, I decided to take everything out again and salvage what I could by cramming it into my kitchen freezer.

In prayer, I asked Jesus for help. I thought, I really cannot afford a new freezer at this time, so I started looking in the newspaper for used freezers.

That same morning, I could not get my satellite Internet service to work. The problems were making me a little discouraged. When I called my Internet service provider, a young man took me through some steps to get it up and running. He suggested I press the reset button on my outlet, and as I was listening to him, I noticed a digital clock flashing as though the power had gone off. Later, when I plugged my curling iron in it did not heat up! I hit the reset button and thought, Maybe now the freezer will work. Sure enough, when I went to the garage and turned the power on, the motor started. I said, “Thank You, Jesus!”

How often we ask for God’s help, expecting Him to answer in a certain way. I assumed the Lord would help me buy a different freezer, but instead He showed me that the problem was much easier to fix. I am so thankful He did not answer the way I expected Him to! In our focus verse, we read that Naaman also had wrong expectations when he went to Elisha to be healed of leprosy. Naaman thought he would be instantly healed, but Elisha told him to first go wash himself in the muddy Jordan River—not what Naaman had in mind at all. The good news is that Naaman agreed to follow God’s plan, and was healed.

When we come to God with a need, we want to remember that He sees aspects of our problem that we cannot see. He has the perfect solution for us, so we do not need to bother thinking up our own suggestions!