You can listen to this post here on Refresh Her.
Part 1 of this lesson begins here, if you missed it.
When there is a problem and things are going rough, it’s so easy for me to jump in and try to “figure it out” for the Lord! But His ways are so much higher, and I have learned that I must trust Him, rather than getting in His way. Sometimes I simply fret and worry, instead of enjoying the peace of knowing He will work it all out.
When my expectations
and God’s ways
don’t match,
I must fill the gap with trust.
~Ken Collier
In the lesson about Naaman the leper, he was sent to Elisha to be healed from his terrible disease. Naaman had it all figured out exactly how he would be healed. It would be a dramatic healing that would have brought the glory to man, rather than God. But it didn’t look like that…at all, and Naaman was not a happy man. Here’s his response –
11 But Naaman was wroth 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 strike his hand over the place, and cure the leper.’
12 Are not (Abana and Pharpar,) rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
Naaman shares his “better” idea and turns away in his anger. I think about him covered in his leprosy, maybe even dropping a finger or a toe as he turns and flies off to go home! How foolish of him! But, oh how foolish of me to get angry when God doesn’t answer the way I think He should. Naaman may have lost an appendage, but I lose things, too, when I want my way, rather than God’s.
- I lose my testimony as a follower of Christ.
- I lose my ability to point others to trust in Jesus.
- I lose my opportunity to see what God will do!
- I lose the cleansing and healing that following God’s ways will bring.
- I miss out on seeing that His ways are so much higher than mine!
When my expectations and God’s ways don’t match,
I must fill the gap with trust. – Ken Collier
It will require faith that God’s way is best!
So look what happens next…
13 And his servants came near, and spoke unto him and said, “My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
Thank the Lord for these wise servants who gave good counsel! Proverbs 11: 14 Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Surround yourself with wise, godly people who can set you on the right path. Because of this servant, Elisha went to the Jordan river instead of going back home to Syria.
14 Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
He wasn’t just clean…his flesh was like that of a child! But not only was his flesh child-like, his heart is, too! He had learned he could trust this God!
What is it you’re praying about today? Are you allowing God to do His will? Or are you trying to handle it with your own plan? His ways are so much better than yours, Friend. You can trust His hand.
RefreshHer 