“Naaman, commander
of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high
favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a
mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.”
If we are to have an encounter with God, we must be rid of the
illusion of self-sufficiency. And guess what?
It is inevitably going to happen. Here’s what you have with Naaman. He’s
got everything. Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Syria;
Naaman was an important political authority; Naaman was a mighty man of
valor. Naaman was a conquering military hero - - Naaman - - - became a leper. BOOM!
The illusion of self sufficiency was decimated by a terrible disease.
And this will ultimately happen to all of us. I do not care how powerful you are, how smart
you are, I don’t care how much money you have – you are bound at some point to
be confronted with something bigger than you are, something you cannot scheme
out of, something you have no control over , and that something is going to
demonstrate that you are truly not sufficient in and of yourself. Chronic
illness, personal betrayal, financial reversals - no amount of power or money
can stop those things from happening. Life
is so fragile, so easily broken, so prone to come crashing down all around!
Naaman, was
brought to that truth by a terrible disease, Leprosy, and that disease was in
fact the blessing that started him along with his very first step toward an
encounter with God. And it is a first
step for you and I today – we must be getting rid of the illusion of
self-sufficiency.
No comments:
Post a Comment