Re:Verse reading–2 Kings 5 (day one)
“Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”–Acts 16:31.
“Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”–Genesis 15:6
“Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored.”–2 Kings 5:10
If we are honest, sometimes we miss God because we overcomplicate the path. Like Naaman in 2 Kings 5, we expect something hard, something that requires much effort. (See his protest in v 11.) But the seed and center of salvation is always simple faith. Obedience that rises from it. We are invited by the Spirit to a new certainty that–that God is good and worthy to be trusted. Nothing hard or complicated. Childlike and pure. Believe Him (rather than yourself) you will be saved.
“His word shall not fail you–He promised. Believe Him and all will be well.”–Helen Lemmel. Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus.
But sometimes people miss salvation because it seems too easy.
Humans make things more complicated then they are. I choose faith and obedience. I have always believed in the following thoughts: Trust and Believe in God, and Be Saved; Repent, and Be Pardoned; Wash, and Be Clean.
I like Helen Lemmel’s quote!
“Childlike and pure”
The servant girl, although a captive, snatched from her home and taken away as part of the spoils of war, has concern and empathy and compassion for her Master, who i would guess had not paid much attention to this nothing little servant girl. Nonetheless she expresses her wish that he could go to her home-town prophet to be healed of his leprosy. He went, was grumpy about it, but became healed in body and spirit, now avows Israels God as the only true God.
Had the little girl not cared enough to mention this to her Masters wife, then we wouldn’t have this story. Naaman wouldn’t have been healed and God would not have been glorified. Surely Naaman also shared Gods work in him with others and they perhaps became God-People. Think of the eternal ramifications of this one tiny act of love by the little girl……. and how that should change my thinking and attitude towards others that have a need.