August 9
God Heals in His Own Way
In the Hour of Silence"Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee."—2 Kings 5:10.
I AM very likely to encounter Naaman's disappointment. Being what I am, I can scarcely escape it.
He did not like God's method of healing. It wounded his pride—he, the great man, with talents of silver and pieces of gold and changes of raiment, enough to make the poor prophet rich for the rest of his life. So my pride chafes and rebels against God's plan of saving me. Is it true that I can do nothing for myself? Is it believable that I can give absolutely no equivalent? Must I be wholly dependent on Another? And must I enter into pardon and peace side by side with publicans and sinners? It seems intolerable. It kindles my anger. I am disposed to turn away in a rage.
But surely I shall submit soon or late, and soon rather than late, to Naaman's cure.
His servants brought him to reasonableness instead of reasoning. And his disease admonished him, and asked, "Are you going back as you came, a mass of ugly and putrid sores?" Humbled at length, he washed in Jordan, and his flesh came to him like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And I have only to wash and be clean. I have only to look and live. I have only to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I shall be saved. It is the Good Physician's remedy, and it is available for me.
"Yet never fear:
The leper Naaman
Shows what God will and can;
God who worked there is working here.'
Let me give the Author of salvation His own good way.