Will you obey?
That was the gist of the message last weekend. And that’s the first step toward overcoming.
Or, said another way, ‘Will you chase after God with all you’ve got?’ That’s what the Lord God Almighty really desires from each of us and, if we really think about it, it’s not all that odd.
- Parents, don’t you love it when your kids actually love you back?
- Doesn’t unrequited love stink?
- Who wants a dog that won’t come when you call it?
You get the idea. God didn’t create us so He could spend all eternity being our personal vending machine. He created us to love us and to commune with us. And true communion involves love that goes both ways.
This past week I talked about the biblical character, Naaman. Naaman had it all and was a truly great man. 2 Kings 5:1 says,
“1 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”
In fact, the story goes on to make it clear that Naaman had it all—prosperity, popularity, power. In today’s vernacular, ‘Naaman had arrived!’
Then came the leprosy.
Back then it was a death sentence. Incurable, Untouchable, Unacceptable. Just like that, Naaman went form Mr. Popularity to Mr. Outcast. But he wasn’t much for quitting, so he tried everything to no avail. Finally, he lead his command from a distance and lived on his own since leprosy is highly contagious.
Then one day someone told him about the prophet, Elisha from Israel. And Naaman decided to give him a try. Expecting to have the prophet pray over him or wave a magic wand, imagine his shock and surprise when the prophet instead told him to wash 7 times in the Jordan river. In fact, why imagine? Here’s the reply,
“Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.”
He would have none of it. After all, he was a big shot, not some grunt who could be ordered around. He gave the orders and not visa versa.
So he sat—stewing in his anger and festering with leprosy. The leprosy got worse, and Naaman grew more desperate than ever. Pretty soon he felt lower than a bum on the street. And what is it they say about beggars not being choosers?
“ 13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’
And Naaman yielded.
!” 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
“ 15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.”
I love a happy ending!
But notice what Naaman didn’t do…
- He didn’t brag about his wasing technic.
- He didn’t focus on the water’s healing powers.
- He didn’t try to bottle some of the water and sell it as having ‘fountain of youth’ potential.
He shifted all his focus to what mattered most. The God who healed him.
Naaman may have started out as a self loving, prideful man with no interest whatsoever in God. But he ended up a God chaser!
Rather than focusing on the healing, he focused on the Healer
Isn’t that all God asks in the first place?
And it took a crises to get Naaman to that point
What will it take for you and I?