“And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was furious 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 wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.’”
I remember being taught how to scrape and paint a house. I was taught you have to scrape the old flakey paint off first and then paint on the new paint. Simple right? Well, no one told me the scraping was going to take forever. If you did the scraping right up front, the paint job would last longer and look better.
Naaman was a the commander of the army of Aram. The Lord had given him great victory and he was highly regarded as a valiant soldier. However, he had one big problem, he was diagnosed with leprosy.
His wife’s servant girl knew about how Elisha could heal people so she went and told Naaman’s wife. We soon find out that Naaman went on his way to Israel to see Elisha. He was bearing gifts and a letter from the king of Aram telling him that he was there to get healed of leprosy. The king of Israel reads the note and thinks that Aram is trying to pick a fight because he knows he cannot heal the leprosy. Elisha hears about all this and sends for Naaman.
Naaman shows up at Elisha’s front door. All his men and gifts were with him. Verse 10 tells us that Elisha’s messenger came and told him what to do to be healed. Go and wash seven times in the Jordan river and he will be cleansed of leprosy. Naaman goes a little #crazyman on everyone because his expectations were not met.
You see, Naaman had already planned out how this encounter would go in his mind and how this God of Israel would perform the miracle. As Naaman listened to Elisha’s instructions from his servant, it was not even close to how he pictured getting healed. In fact, one could say that Elisha’s actions were kind of rude because he would not even meet this important person face to face. He also told such an important person to bathe, not once, but seven times in the dirty Jordan river.
Most of the time, God does not move according to our plans. More often, He moves in our lives by such odd means it can make us mad and confused. All of Naaman’s life he was highly esteemed and honored by many when he walked into a room. But Elisha sent his messenger out to tell what to do and on top of that, he was told to bath in a dirty river seven times.
Today, sit back take a look at what is around you, the people who are there, the circumstances you find yourself in. In Naaman’s life, he was commanded to bath seven times in a river and this set of instructions came from a crazy man of God named Elisha in a foreign country. In your life right now, realize that God may be directing you into a miracle and it will most likely not be the way you thought it was going to play out.
Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the Lord, And He delights in his way [and blesses his path].” You may have a set of plans on how things are going play out but it is the Lord who directs your steps. Step out on faith today and believe in that the Lord is with no matter how crazy or ill prepared you are. For it is not by might or by power but my Spirit says the Lord (Zechariah 4:6).
Prayer: Father, just like Naaman had to bathe seven times in the Jordan river, help us to carry out your plans that you have set before us. Help us carry the mantle of responsibility you have underneath us and to glorify the Lord in it. I know we can get frustrated just like Naaman did, so Lord send that servant to us that will point us back to the Lord. You work in mysterious ways (Ecclesiastes 11:5) and I pray that you would open our eyes to see your supernatural hand in all we do. In Jesus name, amen.
Let It Go 
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