Naaman - This is it!

2 Kings 5:9-15
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.
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. ¹⁵ Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.


This is Naaman's conversion.  What does 'conversion' mean? Well according to Google, it is defined as "the process of changing or causing something to change from one form to another."  For Naaman, this was two-fold.

When Naaman hears that Elisha has sent someone out to give him instructions of what to do - he was not happy.  Perhaps he was expecting some big fanfare and a miraculous show - and it was not going to happen. Naaman was upset that he had traveled all that way and was told to wash in their river.  He had rivers where he lived - he could've done that there.  Instead of just listening and doing what he was told to do - he left angrily.

We are so like Naaman. We want answers to questions, but we want them in our own way, in our own manner, and how we expect them to be answered.  God doesn't work like that. And when we get angry and stomp off, we miss the miracles that God is trying to do in our lives. 

Luckily for Naaman, he had people around him to whom he would listen. They spoke common sense to his angry heart - 'we've traveled all this way. You are dying. It's a swim in the river. Why don't you just try it.'  This is why it is so important to surround yourself with Godly people who will redirect your thinking when we get in our own way.

Then the miracle happened, his leprosy went away and he was changed: Not only physically, but spiritually as well.  Naaman announced "Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel".

How exciting to see that when we listen and obey, miracles can happen.