Encountering God

Naaman was a Syrian general.  He was essentially the Prime Minister of Syria.  He was the commander in chief of the army.  He was a man who was extremely wealthy, he was extremely successful, he was extremely sophisticated, and he was an accomplished politician.  II Kings 5 tells us about this great man – it says, ““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 . . . . ”  But there was a great problem, Naaman was a leper.

Leprosy is a terrible disease, it is tragic, debilitating, it makes its victims exiles, social outcasts – leprosy is a terrible thing to happen to a person.  But leprosy was the bane that God used as a blessing – Naaman, needed an encounter with God, and God used leprosy to make that happen.

It has been the hard things of my life that has taught me the best lessons..  It was the hard thngs of my life that taught me the foolishness of putting my hope in things that are not God. It has been the hard things in life that has brought me to a place where I have encountered God  As I said in an earlier post, when all else is purged away, I have God!

These next few posts I want to think more deeply about the means and blessings of a true encounter with God.  To do that, we will unpack the narrative centering around this man Naaman, and as we do – I am hoping that we will see in his story the things that pave the way to an encounter with God.

May I give you an assignment?  Why not read II Kings 5:1-19 and then follow along as we glean from this rich story insight for our learning so that we will know how we may be positioned to encounter God.