Your Heart Doesn't Have To Hurt
He was a man of great valor, valuable to those around him. But he had one terrible problem. Despite his esteem among the people, he had an afflicting skin disease. Naaman heard it through the grapevine that there was a prophet in Israel, Elisha, that could cure him, and so he went, seeking help.
9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
11 But 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. II Kings 5:9-12
Naaman was an important man, and he was insulted that the prophet would send him a message to “dip” himself in the Jordan seven times to be healed. He wanted pomp and circumstance, something big and extravagant. He was an important man in his day and he wanted a showy and instant healing.
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’!” 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. II Kings 5:13-14
After his servant reasoned with him, he humbled himself enough to follow the prophet’s instructions. He had to submerge seven times, but in the end, the healing came, and he praised the God of Israel for it.You and I, we are just the same as Namaan. We may have a deep need for a healing in our hearts and we pray for a sudden miracle that does not come. We function, but we hurt. And God gives us a prescription. He may ask you to start the work of forgiveness in your heart towards someone. He may ask you to begin handling your finances in a different way. He may ask you to stop listing the person’s wrongs and start giving unrelenting grace. We may have the instructions for our healing right in our very laps, but we don’t want to swallow the medicine. Some of us would rather remain sick, unhealed, and hurt, than to accept the healing tonic of God’s instructions.
Most of the time when we are required to take an antibiotic, or some other concoction for our sicknesses, it takes time for the healing to come. We don’t notice it overnight. But the action of swallowing the pill and internalizing it does the job of healing over time and before we know it, we are well again, the pain removed. The same is true for our Spiritual walk when we are dealing with the hurts of our hearts. When we take the necessary steps by accepting whatever the Lord asks us to do then we too will find that we are made new. It may be a hard pill to swallow, my friend. But “dip” yourself in the Jordan. Allow the cleansing waters of God’s Word and the remedies He gives us to heal your heart today.
(Thanks to Beth Moore for teaching this passage and allowing me to see the truths from II Kings 5.)
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