1700 It’s Your Dusk

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

Right now it looks like you have no good options, but you have no idea what God is willing to do in response to your obedient next step of faith. You cannot see what radical provision and breakthrough God has aligned, and you won’t see it until you decide staying stuck here is no longer an option.

Too often we give in to the hopeless feeling that we are stuck and without options. There’s always a choice to be made … always. Making no choice is indeed a choice. Staying stuck is a choice. Giving up is a choice. Believing the worst is a choice. Now, what’s the other choice? And what might God do on your behalf as you decide to make a bold choice to not give up and no longer stay stuck?

If this is speaking to you personally today, you are going to love this little story tucked away in the book of 2 Kings. However, to get the full effect of the story, I need you to read the New International Version with me. All the translations give us the same story, but the specific wording in the NIV translation shows us a miracle we might otherwise miss.

2 Kings 7: Verses 3-8: Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

Hmmmm, doesn’t sound applicable to your life today? You don’t get the lesson God is speaking to you? Let’s dig deeper because I assure you it is there!

First, understand the setting. The king of the Arameans had placed his army around the entire city of Samaria. They had cut off all the Samarian’s food supply, as to slowly defeat them by starvation. The famine in Samaria was so extreme, even a pint of dove’s dung sold for 5 pieces of silver. In today’s money that would be nearly $20 US dollars … yes for a cup of eatable bird poop. To say the people in Samaria were in extreme need was an understatement.

But even worse than the people in Samaria, were these 4 lepers who were forced to live outside of the city gate. A person with leprosy was an outcast, forbidden contact with others. Begging to go into the city with their people would have done no good. They knew there was no food in the city, and even if there were a tiny bit, they would certainly be the last people to be fed.

So, they knew … if they stayed where they were, they would die. If they went into their own city, they would die. And odds were if they went into the enemy camp of the Arameans who had surrounded them, they would die as well … but there was a chance they might live. So, they decided to take a chance.

Now, there’s something incredible happening within this scripture that we could easily miss. Look at the specific timing of their bold first step to get up and leave where they had been stuck. “At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans.” When was it? At dusk. Dusk is the beginning of night just after sunset, also known as twilight.

So, at dusk is when these 4 desperate, starving lepers decide they can’t stay where they are, they can’t return to what they knew before, and they would boldly make a risky move to go to the enemy’s camp. At dusk.

Now, look at what was happening in the enemy’s camp at that exact time. The Lord causes the Arameans to hear the sound of chariot and horses and a great army, so they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

What time did the enemy run? At dusk!

My friends, this is absolutely no coincidence. Remember, it’s not odd, it’s God. Our God is in every detail! This was God in the details for these 4 starving lepers who had become so desperate they decided staying stuck where they were was no longer an option.

Exactly when they made their move of desperate faith, God made his move of orchestrated confusion on the enemy. There were no chariots circling around the Aramean army. There was no great invasion or military attack happening. God made them hear something that wasn’t even there. He confused them and made them run into the dusk. At dusk … the same moment the 4 outcast lepers from the besieged Samaria were taking their first steps.

Notice this wasn’t an act of inspired faith. They weren’t divinely inspired with a heavenly sign. They didn’t receive some sort of miraculous confirmation. No, this was desperate faith that caused them to leave where they had been stuck and dare to do something different.

I think that’s exactly what God wants his girls to see today. Sometimes we don’t get a miraculous confirmation. Sometimes we don’t feel inspired. Sometimes there is no heavenly sign to assure us of our next step. But sometimes that’s exactly what we’re waiting on. Honey, what if your next step isn’t made in the sweet aroma of inspired faith, but in the mess of desperate faith.

Desperate faith … Faith that says, I just can’t stay stuck here and while I don’t see any other good options, I’ve gotta try something.

My sister, the moment you take that desperate step of faith into the messy and ugly unknown, God may be doing something! He may be orchestrating confusion on the enemy for you. He may be clearing a camp ahead just for you. He may be aligning divine provisions at this very moment for you. Yes, the moment of your step of desperate faith

Lord, if you don’t do something, I’m not going to make it. So I’m taking a step and believing your eye has never left me and you are fighting for me.

These 4 lepers find a completely abandoned camp overflowing with supplies. All the food they could eat. All the silver and gold and clothing. Everything was there for them!

But, this was so much bigger than 4 starving men miraculously finding food. This was actually the end of the Samarians forced starvation by the Aramean army. Their people were saved. God had rescued them.

God had done it at dusk. At dusk he had caused their enemies to run in confusion and fear and leave their entire camp. At dusk, 4 desperate men had drug themselves into the camp to beg for mercy. But mercy was already aligned by the hand of God. And these 4 men with desperate faith saved their people from starvation. These 4 men who were outcasts became the heroes.

But it never would have happened if they would have given up. It never would have happened if they would have resigned themselves to the way things had to be, starving at the city gate, isolated in their sickness. It never would have happened if they wouldn’t have taken that desperate step of faith at dusk.

My sister … is this your dusk? Darkness is setting in. Options have run out. You can’t just stay stuck here. You can’t resign yourself to the way it’s always been. You have to do something. You have to get up.

I remember a time when I was desperately seeking a job. A time when there seemed to be absolutely no jobs. A job would be posted, but by the time I got there to apply, there were 10 others in front of me. So one day, out of desperation, I printed up a resume which included my extensive education at the tiny high school where I graduated #11 out of my class of 100, and my extensive work history of McDonalds. I took that resume door to door to all the places that had never asked for help. Until eventually, I walked into an office where they had literally just lost their receptionist.

And that was the beginning. The beginning of what became a career. A career that afforded me more luxuries than I could have ever imagined. Luxuries that taught me lessons I never knew I needed. Lessons that humbled me. Then humbled me met my mentor. A mentor that led me to seeing I was created for more. And that “more” led me here to you today to tell you the same.

My sister, you were created by God for more. Don’t settle here. Don’t assume there’s nothing more you can do. If you feel desperate … good! Now do something with that desperation and take a step into the unknown. God awaits in the unknown.

It’s dusk. It’s time to do something! God, I’m believing you can do something with my something.

Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com