Namaan was a mighty and honorable servant. The Lord had used him for a great deliverance. He was honorable, a very effective vessel of God's choosing, to show forth His deliverance and perfect will in. God used N, but at the same time, N had this struggle going on inside and outside, that he had to deal with. He was a leper. This disease not only threatened his life, but he probably suffered from humiliation in terms of how others would have perceived him. In all likelihood, the constant battle of overcoming the way he was perceived by others was just as fierce as the physical battle he faced, and the devastation he felt inwardly because of it.
God saw this and wanted to deliver N from this torment, and N knew that God was deliverer. But N was provoked at the Lord because His expectation of the way God would work that out for him was totally different than the plan God actually had in place. Yes, God wanted to to heal him, for God loved N . N didn't doubt God as deliverer, his doubt centered around the way God chose to heal him and how God would work that out. It just didn't coincide with his understanding of how God worked and therefore N rejected it. He thought He just knew how God worked. God saw this and it was important that He work this out of N.
Many times we do not know what we just think we know. WE have to smile silently to ourselves when we hear people expound on so many things. I would rather walk quietly and carefully beside God as my friend and see how God will work it out rather than run ahead of Him. God's ways are not man's ways and we so easily confuse the two. God has to shake us all up and say to us, "Yes, my purpose and my heart is steafast towards you, but you have gotten just a little too religious in all of this, and I really need to not only heal you, but I need to deliver you from yourself. That's important to me." (In Naaman's stubborn and religious mindset, he wasn't able to grab ahold of God's true heart for Him.)
I think it's safe to say that we are all the same. We all seem to want God to work in a very precise and certain way. WE have these expectations, all of us. And because of them, we will expend enormous energy, attention, and resources to bring that to pass. This is quite intense in us all. We should rather keep in focus God's true heart, His love towards us, He wants to help us, encourage us, strengthen us, be there for us, moment by moment. But it's the moments and the process that are important. Yes the end product is important, but more important, it's the process along the way, the here and now that molds us into what we grab hold of in the future. God wants to dig in and clarify our misconceptions along the way so that we come into the union that is there for us in Christ that is deepening along the way. We are so needy. If we will truly believe that it's the here and now, and grab ahold of Him, then how He chooses to work things out and where we will need to go with all of that, this becomes less of an issue. It's not so much directional *ie what direction are you going with this God* as it is relational *relational with Him, He is our focus*
Truly believing His heart is for us and for those we love, means we will trust Him and that trust will deepen. He is careful and will use so much mercy to show us the way. We will feel His heart in us, feeling what He feels for others. We will come in contact with God's true heart, and in that place there is peace, and we can say "All is TRULY well". Our union deepens and we know we are connected with the Father and He is having His way and it's all good.
His comfort, peace and moment by moment reassurances have no earthly value, it just gives us so much hope when we know that we are not in control, He is in control, we can trust Him more and more, as we lay aside our expectations and our religious mindsets, and things will progress. He is the one Thing we do know. God is for us, loves us, and is concerned for our/each other's/ whole being . Our greatest need seems to be, to be reminded over and over again, of who He is, He is tremendously after us and He is pursuing us. He never changes, no matter what is happening. Remind ourselves and each other. We have a tremendous hope in Him. God is working it all out according (not to our plan and our religion) but to His plan. His plan is good.
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