Written by,
Robert Johnson
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I have a question, why do we as believers find it hard to trust or have faith in God’s word. We trust relationships, friends, our jobs, the car we use to take us to work, down to the chair that we believe will hold us when we sit down – But we find it difficult to trust God – why?
When we don’t understand the issues and the situations of life don’t belong to us, I believe we we will find the solution to the problem leaving God outside the equation. – We can’t leave God out, our faith must remain in Him!
Acts 17:28 NIV
“For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, We are his offspring.”
We as believers don’t belong to ourselves, we were bought with the price of our saviors blood! How could we trust anything or anyone then the one who died for our sin –
Here’s the reality, some people do seem to have a harder time trusting God and believing that His way is always best. They may be sincere believers—and yet they still have a hard time taking their hands off their situation and living by faith. “Just do it!”
Do you remember Peter, who on one occasion stepped out of the boat and began walking on the water toward Jesus—only to become fearful and sink? At least he got out of the boat! Peter wasn’t perfect—but at that moment he found it easier than his fellow disciples to put his faith into action. We should learn from his example. (Matthew 14:22-36.)
Example –
Naaman was the commander of Syria’s (Aram’s) army and well regarded as a military man, but he had leprosy. His Israelite servant girl suggested he go to Elisha to be healed. Naaman left for Israel, taking a large gift with him and a letter from Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, asking the king of Israel to heal Naaman (2 Kings 5:1–6). The king of Israel’s reaction was panic—how could anyone heal leprosy? The king of Israel thought Ben-hadad was trying to start a fight (2 Kings 5:7).
When the prophet Elisha heard of the king’s distress, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel” (2 Kings 5:8). Naaman then came to Elisha’s house with his chariots, gifts, and servants.
Elisha did not even come out to greet Naaman. Instead, he sent a message to wash in the Jordan River seven times to be healed.
“Just do it!”
“Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and went away in a rage” (2 Kings 5:11–12) “Just do it!”
Naaman’s servants urged him to reconsider, and Naaman wisely did. After dipping himself in the Jordan River seven times, he was completely healed as Elisha had said. In fact, “his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy” (2 Kings 5:14). Naaman returned to Elisha and said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant” (verse 15). Elisha refused the gift and sent the Syrian commander away in peace.
Naaman came to be healed carrying rich gifts in fine chariots; Elisha had no such finery, just the power of God. Naaman’s pride was almost his undoing: too proud and stubborn to follow the prophet’s simple instructions, he almost bypassed the blessing that God had in store. We, too, should obey the Word of God, even when God’s way does not make sense to us.
Also, those who serve God do not do so for financial gain but out of love and simple obedience to the Lord. Elisha refused the princely gift offered to him. God is a giver, not a taker, and His gifts cannot be bought. Naaman’s healing from leprosy is a wonderful picture of our salvation from sin—freely bestowed by the grace of God in response to faith (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Jesus used the story of Naaman and Elisha as an illustration of Israel’s problem of unbelief. In Luke 4:27, Jesus tells the crowd in the synagogue of Nazareth, “There were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
The lepers of Israel overlooked the healing that could have been theirs through Elisha, so God healed a Syrian instead. In the same way, the Israelites of Jesus’ day were missing the Power right in front of their eyes. But God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34–35), and the Gentiles eventually received the gospel that Israel rejected.
In Closing, the real question, however, is this: How can your faith grow stronger? The answer first of all is to allow God’s truth to overcome your doubts. Is the Bible part of your life every day? Do you allow its truth to penetrate your soul? Let your prayer be that of the Psalmist: “Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end” (Psalm 119:33).
Blessings – God’s word was already present in the water by the spoken word from the foundation of the world – Jesus would be Baptized in this Same Jordan River! “Just do it!”
