Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Good Conji was written by Karen Huang.

Jocelyn's best-selling dish at her food stall was her kanji.

She'd stir the rice porridge very carefully until it had a smooth consistency. So she was startled when a regular customer said,

Your kanji tastes different. The texture isn't as fine. Jocelyn's new assistant had prepared it this

time and explained why it was different.

I didn't stir it as long as the recipe said, since that's how I do it at home. I also added more

sesame oil. In my opinion, it tastes better that way. She had decided to ignore the recipe and do it

her way instead.

This is how I sometimes respond to God's instructions.

Instead of fully obeying his commands as given in Scripture,

I subject them to my opinions and proceed my way.

Naiman, the commander of the Syrian army, was on the verge of making a similar mistake.

On receiving God's instruction through the prophet Elisha to wash himself in the Jordan so his

leprosy would be healed, the proud soldier got angry. He had his own expectations for how his need ought to be addressed,

believing his opinion was superior to God's command. His servants, however, convinced him to listen

to Elisha's words. As a result, Naiman was healed. When we do things God's way, we experience a peace that's indescribable.

Let's work with Him in fulfilling His purposes.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from 2 Kings chapter 5, verses 1 through 3 and 9 through 14.

Now, Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram.

He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory

to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone

...