Nod your head if you would like to to go a week, or even a day, without the feeling of disappoinetment? How many of you have read the story of Naaman being healed from leprosy in 2 Kings 5 before? Well let me tell you...it is powerful! This passage holds the key to never being disappointed.
Please take 11 minutes to watch my video message on how to avoid disappointment. Below is a type-out of the message for those who can't watch the video.
Have you ever been let down by someone or something? Were
your expectations too high? We are
normally let down or disappointed because something has not met our
expectations. Sometimes our hopes are the bare min. but we still get
disappointed…and it stinks!
So really what we are looking at is our expectations if we get
let down. Well, let me tell you something…our expectations are not always God’s
expectations. If we live our life to God’s expectations we will never be let
down. If expect our life to always have frill and a huge fan fare we are going
to be let down at some point or another.
Now, I am not trying to tell you that you should always set
your expectations low. “How do you avoid disappointment? Low expectations…”
That is wrong. The answer should be ‘Set your sights to God’s expectations and
plans. Let’s look at the scripture to help get my picture across.
In 2 Kings 5:1-15 Naaman, a valiant soldier, had leprosy. As
you all know, this means that he was unclean. It was a tough life for a leper back
in the day. In the passage Naaman’s wife’s servent brought up the idea that he
should go to the prophet in Samaria and be healed. The prophet being Elisha. So
he goes and Elisha gives him some great news, news that not only he can be
healed but that it is very simple to be healed. Hallelujah! Praise God! No
offering needed and bloodshed of animals. He didn’t even have to pay, Elisha
wouldn’t except it. All he had to do was wash himself in the Jordan 7 times and
he will be clean. If I were him I would be heading to the Jordan right then.
But that is not what Naaman did. He actually went away angry! Angry? Why? He just had some amazing news! He can be
cleansed of his disease by, go figure, washing himself in water. Why was he
angry? He had his own expectations and ideas of what would happen.
v. 11 “But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that
he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his
God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.’”
If that wasn’t ridiculas enough he is mad that he has to go
to the Jordan, aren’t the rivers in Damascus better he says. The Jordan was not a glorious river. It was
dark and dirty.
He was expecting a huge fan fare. Who would that have
glorified? God? Or him and Elisha? What he needed to do was so easy but it
wasn’t what he had in mind. Sometimes the enemy tries to use our expectations
to keep up separated from God and what he can do for us. Naaman was about to go
home still a leper because the healing process wasn’t a grand event and he
didn’t want to go to the dirty river and clean himself in it. Think of a time
when something didn’t meet your expectations. It probably ruined your day
didn’t it? I bet you were not rejoicing in the Lord and being glad in it were
you? Is that God’s expectation? No, it was the enemy. Do not let the enemy get
in the way of the task at hand.
There is a deeper message than this though. Let’s look at it
spiritually and apply it to us. Naaman was a man who was dirty. Dirty
represents sin. He was told a very easy was to become clean (free of sin). He had to go wash himself 7 times in the
Jordan River and he would be free. Who is the only one who can clean us from
the dirty life of sin? Jesus. That is the case for us today. All we have to do
become clean and free from sin and bondage that comes with it is to be cleanses
by the Lord. People don’t have to be notified, we don’t have to have a news
crew come out to document it. But why do so many people, like Naaman turn away?
It seems to easy. They think, because it involves them, it should be a bigger
event.
Normally when things seem to easy there is always a
catch…except with God and our salvation. It is easy…go and wash yourself in his
presence and you will be clean!
Maybe that is not you. Maybe you are the reserved type who
would actually prefer to be private with everything. You are not left out of
this story. You have a job too. Let’s continue with v13.
‘Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the
prophet had told you to so some great thing, would you not have done it? How
much more then when he tells you ‘Wash and be cleansed!’ So he went down and
dipped himself in the Jordan seven times as the man of God had told him, and
his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.’
Naaman’s servants are seeing how self-centered he is being.
They ask him why he would do a great difficult task to be clean but when an
easy one is put before you, you say no. When his servants, caring for Naaman
told him this, he can to his senses and washed and was cleansed.
Be the servant in someone’s life. Help them see their wrong and help them fix
it. Do it in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, please. We are all one body. If one person is hurting
or in trouble, we are right there with him. Do you part as a Christian and
start reaching out to others so they can see how simple it is to be cleansed.
Keep our eyes on the Lord, not ourselves. Don’t think about
how something can benefit you. Think about how it can benefit God’s kingdom and
his people who he loves. Stop setting your own expectations and start living
out God’s.
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