Open Heavens 7 December 2014 Sunday Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – Good Neighbourliness
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Topic: Good Neighbourliness [Open Heavens 7 December 2014]
Memorise: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. – Proverbs 18:24
Read: 2 Kings 4:1-8
4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
4:2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.
4:3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
4:4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
4:5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.
4:6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
4:7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
4:8 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
MESSAGE:
The widow of the dead indebted son of the prophets lived in a predominantly poor but friendly neighbourhood. This can be deduced from the response of her neighbours to her request for empty vessels. There are lessons to learn from this interesting story, one of such is that: you are living in the midst of opportunities. Where you live right now is where your miracles are. God will inspire you and like that widow, you will discover that your miracles are in your neighbourhood in Jesus’ Name.
The point to note here is that, you must be friendly with the people living around you. Can you imagine what would have happened after Elisha told the widow to go to her neighbours for the vessels with which she must collect the object of her miracles and she couldn’t because she was not friendly with them? Can you imagine what their response will be if she had fought all the people in her neighbourhood? The Bible in Proverbs 18:24 says,
“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
In so many instances, you do not need to relocate from where you are to get your breakthrough. In Genesis 26:1-3, we come across another interesting story in which God commanded Isaac not to go down to Egypt. God commanded him to stay in Gerar despite the famine in that land. He stayed and God blessed him mightily. In like manner, God is going to prosper you no matter the economic recession in your neighbourhood or in your country. There is a river in your neighbourhood that harbours a particular fish with a gold coin in its belly. All you need to do is to catch the fish, open its mouth and claim the coin that will enrich you for life (Matthew 17:27). There are some people in your neighbourhood, who have more money than they can ever spend in a lifetime. You only need to reach out to them with the message of salvation. Do you know that those that are extremely rich are hungry for the message of salvation? There was a young lady that preached to a rich man and he gave his life to Christ.
This man became so filled with the joy of salvation that he decided to give something to this sister.
He purchased a brand new car as a gift for this sister in appreciation for the salvation of his soul.
What God did for that sister, He can do for you. Go out and be a good neighbour to those around you by offering them the message of hope and salvation. You will be surprised at how God can reward your labour of love. Be a good neighbour today by evangelising to the lost souls in your neighbourhood.
Action Point: Go out and preach the gospel to your neighbours today.
Bible in a Year: Ezra 1-3
Open Heavens Daily Devotional written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer’s Ministries.
