Learn From Everyone | Daily Breakthrough Bread | October 6, 2026

You may be missing wisdom because of who is speaking.

TEXT

2 Kings 5:1–14

KEY VERSE

“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?”

2 Kings 5:13, KJV

CONTEXT

Naaman was a respected commander in Syria, but he was a leper. A young Israelite girl told his wife about Elisha, and Naaman went seeking healing. Elisha instructed him to wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman became angry because the instruction was not what he expected. But when his servants reasoned with him, he listened, obeyed, and was healed.

REFLECTION

There is a kind of pride that does not say, “I know everything.” It simply says, “There is nothing I can learn from you.” It says, “I am better than you. I know better.”

We all have people we naturally listen to. We respect their age, education, experience, position, or spiritual maturity, so when they speak, we pay attention. But then there are others whose words we have already decided to disregard. They are perhaps too young or too inexperienced. Maybe we do not like their personality, or we simply dislike them. Or perhaps they do not have the results we are looking for.

And once we have judged the person, we often stop examining the message.

Naaman almost missed his healing because he had already decided what God’s answer should look like. He said, “Behold, I thought…” He expected something dramatic. Instead, he received a simple instruction through a messenger who did not even come out to meet him.

His problem was not that he was unwilling to obey. His servants pointed this out: “If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?” Naaman was willing to do something great. He simply struggled to do something that felt too small for him to do.

How often are we like that?

We may receive correction from someone we admire and call it wisdom, but hear the same truth from someone we have underestimated and call it disrespect. We may listen carefully to a sermon but ignore the simple observation of a friend.

Read through the Scripture, and you will observe that God does not always package wisdom in the kind of people we expect.

The young girl had something Naaman needed to know. His servants had something Naaman needed to hear. Even an ordinary conversation can become a doorway to wisdom when our hearts are humble enough to listen.

This does not mean that everyone is right or that every opinion deserves our agreement. Being teachable is not the same as being gullible. We still need discernment. But discernment requires us to listen before we dismiss.

Sometimes the lesson is hidden behind the person we would least expect to teach us.

So before we say, “What can this person possibly teach me?” perhaps we should ask a better question:

“Lord, is there something You are trying to teach me through this person?”

A wise person does not learn only from people they admire.

A wise person remains teachable.

KEY TAKEAWAY

Do not let your opinion of a person prevent you from receiving a lesson God may be trying to teach you through them.

PRAYER

Lord, give us humble and teachable hearts. Deliver us from the pride that makes us dismiss people before we have listened. Give us discernment to recognize truth and humility to receive it, whoever brings it. Help us become wiser through the people You place around us. Amen.

TODAY’S CHALLENGE

Listen carefully today to someone you would normally overlook. Before judging their words, ask yourself: “What can I learn here?”