Sunday Devotional With Mr.E: Humbly Great

I often over think & over do my art.  Something in me believes that work that is flashier, bolder, and more powerful is what makes art great. If people don't get smacked in the face by the message or the look than it isn't good art.  I think this mentality comes partially from being inundated by images from pop culture and advertisement.  There is so much competition for an overcrowded market of products, objects, and ideas.  The "loudest" gets heard.  However, this isn't true about all "great" art.  Sometimes the quietest & most unassuming work possess a power & depth that cannot be matched by the loud & flashy images that via for our attention.  The humbly great art appeals to our heart & soul with it's simple truth.

Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?  How much more then, when he says to you, "Wash, and be clean"?  So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God' and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean. 

 2 Kings 5: 13-14

If you aren't familiar with the story of Naaman you will want to read 

2 Kings 5: 1-14 to understand the context of this scripture better.  

Many people ask God for big things.  This isn't a bad thing.  God desires us to come to Him with our wants, needs, hopes, dreams, pains, and sorrows.  The problem comes in our expectations of how the Lord is going to answer.  We need to trust God to be God in how He answers our prayers.  It isn't always how we want them to be answered.  It isn't always how we expect them to be answered.  Sometimes, the answer to our prayer is that they aren't answered.  In these situations we might get mad/upset with God...stamp our feet...question if God hears us...and a host of other responses that aren't very becoming of someone who knows the Lord.  However, God is not surprised by our response.  He patiently waits for us to finish our "fit", and finally see that His way of answering us is the best way.  We must humbly come before the Lord with our everything, and when we do...we will see that our Great God has been with us through everything.  He hears us...he knows our thoughts...and he knows our heart...and He answers our cries.