2 Kings 5: 11 Naaman became angry and left. He said, "I thought Elisha would surely come out and stand before me and call on the name of the Lord his God. I thought he would wave his hand over the place and heal the disease. 112 The Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than all the waters of Israel. Why can't I wash in them and become clean?" So Naaman went away very angry.

13 Naamans' servants came near and said to him, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? Doesn't it make more sense just to do it? After all, he only told you, 'Wash and you will be clean.' "


I liked this passage SO much because it made me think of all the times when God said, Here you go. Do it My way and it will be all taken care of. But NO. I had to try and go my own way, without Him because I can't really need God can I? Sometimes we think our own way or our own stuff is so much better than what God gives or can give to us. And we choose ourselves over Him. But... look at the scripture. His way heals!! Even when there is something else out there that seems way more grand. His way heals.

I think this passage is a metaphor for salvation and grace. Jesus says He came that we might be saved, because we are sinners and we need a Savior. All we have to do is ask right? But we make it so hard. We think there has to be something we can do to get into Heaven, we have some kind of picture of how good we need to be, that if we just go wash in the bigger, better river we can get there. But we just can't get to Heaven if we are not willing to get there God's way (He did, after all, create Heaven in the first place right?). So, we have to set our expectations of ourselves aside and take a look at our real selves. We have to identify what parts of us are just not godly, what parts of us are just plain horrible. And we have to let ourselves know that this is the sin in us. And we usually need a reason to get rid of those things, to really push them out of our lives. And let me tell ya, just to be a better person is usually not a good enough reason, as much as we might want to believe it is.

Jesus wants every last one of us in Heaven with Him. He came so we could get there the easy way, although it was hard for Him. So today it is our choice. Do we wash in the grace of Jesus? Or do we keep trying to get there on our own, trying to be more good than the person next to us, trying to attain an unattainable righteousness?