From the Pastor's Desk

In 2 Kings 5, we find a fascinating story about a man named Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, who was healed of his leprosy. There are three lessons we can learn from this story.

The first lesson we can learn is to be willing to witness and help whoever God puts in our path. The Bible says in 2 Kings 5:2 that the Syrians had captured this slave girl when they were out on raids. She didn’t ask to be there. She was taken captive. As a result, she waited on Naaman’s wife. It would have been so easy for her to say, “Well, it’s good enough for him to have this leprosy with all he has done to my people. But instead, she allowed God to use her to witness to Naaman and his wife by sending them to a man of God who could help him. You see, God doesn’t want our opinion on who we should witness to. He just wants us to be obedient and seize every opportunity to do so.

The second lesson we can learn is that God may work different than we expected him to. Naaman thought Elisha would come out to him and call on God. He was looking for Elisha to do something great before everyone. Instead, Elisha told him to go wash in the river Jordan. But Naaman didn’t come all that way to be told to wash in a dirty river.

The third lesson we can learn is to be willing to do whatever God tells us to do. Naaman’s servants explained to him that it wasn’t about doing something great, but it was about obedience. They said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean’”? How many times are we guilty of waiting on God to do something great and overlook the little things He may be telling us to do?

Let’s learn the lessons from Naaman’s story and receive whatever God has for us.

-Pastors Tim and Katrina