The phrase “pulling your hair out” has an ancient equivalent: “tearing your clothes.” And just like we have circumstances each week that make us feel like “pulling our hair out,” there are examples in Scripture of how individuals interact with the challenges and stress of life. In 2nd Kings chapter 5 there is a story of a man named Naaman who is healed from his leprosy, but even more than that, it’s the story of 3 very gifted men who respond to their challenges in 3 very different ways.

 

Naaman we’re told in 2nd Kings 5 was a mighty man of valor, a general in the Syrian King’s army who was extremely successful. . . . but he was a leper. Naaman was full of pride and was reluctant to admit that his physical healing (which he needed badly), was not something he could purchase for himself or accomplish on his own. 

 

Many of us have been gifted like Naaman with great responsibilities, to lead others, to care for families, to work in important places, but we must be humble and quick to look to Christ for our own healing. While none of us have physical leprosy, our hearts bend towards the desires of our flesh and of the world. We must be quick to confess honestly to Christ not IF we need his healing, but WHEN we need his healing. 

 

A few verses later this gifted General Naaman attempts to purchase his healing with an exorbitant amount of silver and gold and he makes his request to a 2nd very gifted man: the King of Israel. The King of Israel, when asked to heal Naaman responds with despair, he says “Am I God? To kill and to make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?” 

 

With whatever position and privilege we hold in life it is easy to believe that we are responsible for creating healing and change by our own strength. It’s tempting to look inward, like the King of Israel did and to rely on our own abilities. But the answer to the question “Am I God?” Shouldn’t be despair, but relief, that God has called us to not be God, but to be men and women of God! 

 

So let me leave us with the example of Elisha, we are told that Elisha was a man of God, who, when he heard that the King of Israel had torn his clothes in despair sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let Naaman come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Elisha goes on to tell Naaman to dip in the river Jordan 7 times, and when he eventually obeys, God heals Naaman. 

 

To be a man or a woman of God is not to have life so put together that we don’t struggle with the world, the flesh, and the devil (as Naaman thought it was), nor is it to be so independent and self-sufficient that you can rely on yourself to solve any problem that comes your way (as the King of Israel believed).

 

No, to be a man or woman of God is to experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that others would say “surely, God is with them.”

 

Like Elisha, let’s be joy-filled, Spirit-filled men and women of God. It is God who gives the growth. It is God who is faithful even when you are faithless. It is God who began a good work in each of us so many years ago, and is God who will surely bring it to completion! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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As Ever,

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Pastor Tyler