Keep It Simple Servant

Obedience to God will take a simple action on our part. Here are a few paraphrased examples from the Bible: Moses, strike the Nile with your rod. Raise your rod Moses. Strike the rock with your rod Moses. March around Jericho 7 times and shout. Lepers, go show the priest you are healed. Pick up your mat and walk.

It's as simple as having faith in God, hearing His word, and then taking an action in obedience. Simple enough, right? It only becomes complicated after my ideas start to get involved. When I try to figure things out on my own, I have walked right into the war zone, Spirit vs Flesh. Keep it Simple Servant -

Proverbs 3:5-8 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Let us truly think about this for a moment. How hard was the action for Moses to literally lift his rod and strike the rock after he had faith and chose to be a servant of God? Seems simple enough: God spoke, Moses obeyed and he smacked the rock. Then a blessing came forth, water started to flow.

Luke 17:13-14 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

How hard was it for the lepers to literally start walking to show the priests? It seems simple enough: They called out to Jesus and called Him Master (servants with faith). Jesus spoke to them, they heard the Lord speak, and then they obeyed by placing one foot in front of the other. They did an obedient act (walked) and then they were blessed with a healing. Keep it simple servant! Have Faith, hear the Lord, obey His word by taking action, and then be blessed -

James 1:22-25 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Let us take a look at how we can complicate things of the Lord and over analyze them with our own thinking. Naaman had leprosy and went to Elisha to be healed. Naaman obviously didn't 'keep it simple servant', but, he went as a servant with faith -

2 Kings 5:9-14 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. (Faithful servant)

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. (Hearing a simple direction from the Lord)

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. (Why was Naaman not doing? The bold words tell us why. His own philosopy and ideas were involved and then it was no longer simple. See Proverbs 3:5-8 and Colossians 2:8 above)

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? (In other words, if Elisha had said to go build an altar and sacrifice 100 bulls, would he not have done it? Keep it simple servant! Simply obey the direction of the Lord. At first, Naaman was reasoning his own ways against the word from the Lord. His servants were now reasoning the word from the Lord with Him instead of allowing Naaman to base things on his own understanding)

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (After receiving further guidance on the word from the Lord, he was an obedient servant. He was now a hearer and a doer, thus receiving his blessing. Praise God!)

There are so many examples in the Bible pertaining to the simplicity that the Lord keeps it for us servants. We do the simple action and the Lord handles the big task (the healing, splitting of the sea, water rushing from a rock, etc.)

Sometimes, things of God can end up complicated because of our own ideas. Our thinking can cause us to work against the word of God. Thus, it becomes man's ways and we end up struggling, trying to figure it out on our own.

In the end, when we lean on our own understanding, and our own understanding doesn't play out as we thought it would, we will fall over. This is why it is important to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding (the understanding and philosophies that have been brewed in us from society).

KISS - Keep It Simple Servant