My ways are not your ways, nor are My thoughts your thoughts

God takes Naaman's life and takes it through a process. God not only wants to heal this noble and influential man but he also wants to do other things in his life, he wants to deal with him and that is why we see that he submits him to this treatment.

The prophet Elisha discerns this pride, this secular arrogance that Naaman brings and this expectation of being treated in a preferential way, and special because he is the great general representative of an entire powerful nation, and wants to teach Naaman that God is the Lord of all the Earth, and that anyone who approaches Him must approach with humility, and with simplicity of heart.

And that is why the prophet Elisha, discerning that situation, treats Naaman in this distant way and does not even receive him personally but sends one of his servants to give him the instructions to go and dive seven times into the Jordan, and we have seen the arrogant and petulant reaction, let's say, irritable by Naaman who is offended first by the distant treatment he is given, and secondly by this somewhat insulting recipe, and which is not what he expects; he expected such a glorious treatment and that God was going to do something perfectly elegant and dramatic, suitable for his social-military status, but instead he simply tells him: go to the river and dive seven times.

And we see here that God is breaking Naaman. We see here that many times we have to be humbled and broken in order to receive from God, and first submit to God's treatment. Many times when we are first weakened God can do the things He wants to do in our lives.

We see that interesting reasoning from Naaman that indicates right? where he is and what human reason is many times, and how different God's systems and God's methods are from what reason expects.

He says: "I hoped that the man of God would come out, call on the Name of Jehovah, his God, raise his hand and touch the place, and heal the leprosy" expectation of something so glorious and dramatic right?

And then he says: "Abana and Farfar, rivers of Damascus, are they not better than all the waters of Israel? If I wash in them, will I not also be clean?" That is, he is reasoning: well, if God was going to heal me, couldn't I have done it in my own homeland in bigger and more abundant rivers?

It is true, if today one goes to Israel and visits the Jordan River as many of us have done in those Israel trips, sometimes we feel disappointed because, many times people are baptized in the Jordan River in Israel; It is practically a stream, a small thing and one like that, used to reading about the Jordan River where the Lord moved, and so many miracles that he did there in the Old Testament, the people of God and the prophets, one thinks as it is a very large and powerful river but it is actually quite a humble and small river.

So Naaman reacts to that and feels like why do I have to submit to this little stream here for God to do the miracle that He has to do if He could have done it in a more elegant and bigger river, right?

Brothers: many times we see that the ways in which God moves in our lives are humble and simple ways. The Lord Jesus Christ, I imagine that today I would have walked through one of these great cities in the United States, one of those streets, Fifth Avenue or one of these great streets in this nation and if people had seen it, they would have passed it long as something insignificant.

The Bible says that the Lord was unattractive for us to desire him, a humble and simple-looking man like so many other of God's men and God's women, who are not necessarily those showy, physically impressive people that one expects but people common and ordinary. God loves to use simple and humble means to perform His great miracles.

And how many times are we tempted, even experienced Christians, to look only at the external appearance, and think that because a person is impressive or attractive, or because he speaks very well, or is it eloquent that, well, ah! This is the person that I want to shepherd me or to give me a Word of God, when many times God wants to use someone like David for example, that when the prophet Samuel is going to choose the new king that God has determined for Israel, David's dad brings him all of David's other brothers who are big and strong and mighty and warriors, and he forgets not even that David, little David is out there tending the sheep until God rejects one after another of the David's brothers.

And finally Samuel asks David's father: listen to me, isn't there another one there? because God has not approved any of these, and David's father tells him: oh yes, well we have another son there but he is small, he is young but he does not promise much, we do not believe that he is. And when David comes that is the one that God has chosen. The Bible says that God does not look at the external appearance but looks at the heart, and that is something that we see continually in the Christian life.

God is not interested in academic pedigrees or the great credentials that people often seek, people who serve the Lord. God wants a heart, the size of your heart. God wants the shape of your heart, the quality of your character, of your person, not so much the outer crust. And God can use whoever he wants, a little church God can use to do His great miracles and His great things.

Today we tend to glorify the great; the big churches, the big ministries, the people who do this, do the other, they look a lot and God is not interested in any of those things. God is looking for the perfect heart to show His favor, he says, to show His favor to people with perfect hearts.

So Naaman reasoning like a man thinks: this river is not a suitable place for a miracle like the one I need to take place, nor is this treatment that I have received the treatment that I deserve, but that is the human reason. Many times God humiliates reason and scandalizes reason, and the methodology of the world to open us to the methods of faith. We have to ask the Lord to change our way of reasoning many times and our expectations of how God should work.

And then by making us simple, tender, humble, simple, open to whatever God wants, the Bible says that the madness of God is wiser than the madness of men. So Christians who want to see the power of God in our lives have to learn to think in a completely different way, and this is what we see here, that God was leaving a message for future generations as well, not only for Naaman because this text it was written for us too.

And saying: "My ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts." I believe that this is a consideration that every man or woman of God, who wants to be used by God, should use as a referential text throughout his life. We have to be open to what God wants and have a mind that reasons as the Spirit of God reasons and as it reasons in the Kingdom of God so that God can do His great Works in our lives.

May the Lord bless you, we will continue this wonderful passage in our next meditation.