Mike Browning

Tag: Naaman

  • You Can’t Sell Something That Is Free

    You Can’t Sell Something That Is Free

    Doesn’t stop us from trying tho.

    Continuing with the pattern of God giving first, it just keeps showing up.

    God gives, and we keep screwing it up.

    A man named Naaman comes to Elisha because he has leprosy. Naaman is important, wealthy, and powerful, but none of that can fix what’s wrong with him.

    Aside from that, he’s the commander of an enemy army. An enemy of Israel.

    That doesn’t prevent God from healing him. He doesn’t even require him to switch sides first.

    That part is probably worth remembering whenever we start thinking we need to clean ourselves up before going to God. If He’s willing to heal Naaman, He’s willing to heal us.

    Anyway.

    Elisha tells him what to do, Naaman is healed, and naturally he tries to give Elisha gifts afterward.

    Elisha refuses them because the healing wasn’t for sale. It was a gift from God, given long before Naaman could think about earning it.

    Then enters Gehazi.

    Gehazi is Elisha’s servant, and apparently the whole thing bothers him. Naaman leaves healed, wealthy, and still in possession of all his money and gifts.

    Gehazi can’t leave it alone.

    So he runs after him and lies. Says Elisha changed his mind and now wants payment after all.

    It almost feels modern. God gives freely, and somebody immediately starts trying to figure out how to monetize it.

    You can see it on TV every Sunday.

    “Plant your seed!” “Give first and God will multiply it back!” “Send your offering here!”

    Curiously, the address is usually their own.

    But it’s not just televangelists. It’s all of us.

    We do it ourselves with churches. With ministry. With generosity. With reputation. With morality itself. We constantly try to turn grace into transaction.

    We want a formula. A leverage point. A way to put God in debt to us.

    But God is never in debt to us.

    He gives first, and keeps giving despite how persistently we misuse what we’re given.

    As for Gehazi, he ends up struck with Naaman’s leprosy and is told it will cling to him and his descendants forever. There’s not much mention of him after that, so we don’t really know how his story ended.

    But considering everything else we’ve looked at, it wouldn’t surprise me if even that wasn’t the end of it.

    Because God keeps giving.

    Which is fortunate for all of us.


    P.S.- If you’d like to read through the Bible this year, you can join us at His Word Together.

    No commentary.
    No telling you what to think.
    Nothing to buy.
    Nothing fancy.

    Just steady time in the Word.

    Check it out here.

  • Just Do What God Puts In Front of You

    Just Do What God Puts In Front of You

    You don’t need to save mankind — that’s already been done.

    Naaman was a Syrian general who had leprosy. He went to Elisha’s house expecting a grand miracle, but Elisha didn’t even come outside. He just sent a messenger telling Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River.

    Naaman was insulted. The Jordan was muddy, and he thought the command was beneath him. But his servants reasoned with him: “If the prophet had asked you to do something hard, you would have done it. Why not this simple thing?”

    Naaman humbled himself, did as he was told, and was healed.

    His pride almost kept him from it.

    There’s a bit of Naaman in all of us.

    We want to do good, solve problems, make an impact. But instead of doing the small things God puts in our path, we chase something big — something that might get us recognition.

    See a hungry family on the street? You could hand them a meal.

    Or you could decide to start a food pantry.

    One looks “bigger,” but which one do you think God cares about in that moment?

    We can’t see the whole picture or connect all of God’s dots. The one simple thing we dismiss may matter more than the results of our big plans.

    A kind word, given at just the right time, might keep someone from a disastrous choice. You may never know all the future effects as they extend past your life here.

    But we don’t need to see the future to do the right thing now.

    The short-term results might not look like much, and if something happens far in the future it won’t be tied back to what you did today.

    So nobody celebrates.

    Maybe that’s the real problem — we want the pat on the back more than we want to obey God.

    But God celebrates when we obey.

    Remember the widow who put two pennies in the Temple box?

    Jesus said she gave more than all the people giving large amounts for show.

    The big job — saving the world — is finished. What God asks is smaller: just do what He puts in front of you. If we all did that, the world would look very different.

    Naaman found healing in obedience. We might also.

    PS – Last week I talked about how it might be a good idea to get a physical copy (or copies) of the Bible if you don’t already have one. Reading electronically is great, but there’s no guarantee it will always be available. It can be turned off with the flick of a switch.

    Is it likely? Who knows. Is it possible? Certainly.

    Is there any downside to having a hard copy of the most important book ever written?

    You can buy one here on Amazon.

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you buy something — anything — after clicking that link, I may receive a small commission. It doesn’t change your price.