Lessons from the life of Naman - Addressing The Misconceptions of Healing (Pt. 1).

If God doesn't heal me, he doesn't hear me.

When I accepted Christ into my heart at an early age I bought into many misconceptions about how his unconditional love for his children works. As with most relationships, the more time you spend with someone, the more about them you come to know. While I was one hundred percent sure I knew where I would go if I died, I still had a thousand questions I desired to ask Jesus because about the intricacies of his love and his plan to heal me from the broken person that l was. What I have come to know is that God works in the heavenly realm and in way that are not of this world. We on the other hand, are mortal human beings and struggle with adapting to the mindset and actions of God. While we are limited in our thoughts and understanding to fully grasp Heavenly action-- He is not.

My biggest question most days was, "God, I know that you love me. I know that I will dine with you in Heaven one day, but real talk...why do you help me sometimes, but leave me stranded other times?" It felt as if when things were good, they were good. I would pray and seek guidance and God would answer almost instantly and my problems were solved. Other times however, I would labor over hours of prayer, reading, and searching for an answer from God but was greeted with silence and frustration. While this is a common issue with most Christians today, I believed that if God did not instantaneously respond to my hurt with a healing that something was wrong with our relationship.

While following God has a myriad of benefits, there are also many misunderstandings about what it means to be a follower of Christ. I fell into the dangerous mindset and a huge misconception that so many Christians believe today -- if God doesn't heal me, he doesn't hear me. My friends, this is simply not true. The plan God has for your life is one of building faith and developing perseverance. If you are like me, you may have questioned God as to why you're going through something difficult, and why he hasn't released you from it.

For me to realize that God's silence is not abandonment in my life, I had to first ask myself a simple question: What do I expect from God?

In 2 Kings 5 Elisha teaches an Aramean army commander a powerful lesson about the power of perseverance in the midst of trial. Naman was infected with leprosy (a horrible skin condition of the day) and lived a miserable life because of it. He was a successful leader and knew how to fight. Overthrowing a nation was second nature to him and I'm quite confident he could do this confidently with precision and ease. However, fighting for territory and fighting for healing are two different ventures -- and they can't be treated equally. Naman discovered quickly that while God can heal, he does it on his terms not ours. While Naman expected Elisha to work with God to bring him a timely healing under his terms (2 Kings 5:11), he was greatly mistaken. Elisha didn't heal Naman, God did, and he did it in his timing, no one else's. Elisha threw a wrench into Naman's plans when he instructed Naman to dip into the water not once, not twice, but SEVEN TIMES. At the end of this, his skin would become clear and restored back to it's original state. Before Naman could be healed, he had to correct his skewed image of God and how he responds to people in need.

God is more concerned with character development than he is with our desire for instant gratification and deliverance from what hurts us the most. So many times we experience pain and hurt and don't care about the process to heal -- we just want to stop the pain. Little do we know before we can prosper we need to develop perseverance under the pressures of trial. We don't want pain -- we want pleasure! As mentioned earlier, adapting to living your life according to God's terms is a life long process. God lives in the heavenly realm and we're stuck in the earthly realm at the moment. We have to come to terms that we may never understand why God decides to act in a certain way, but we must have the faith to accept his ways are not our ways. If you're frustrated with not hearing from God as Naman was, understand this : God may be forming you during this difficult time. Are you listening to Him, trusting in the process and knowing that it will lead to a better you? Or are you grumbling with discontentment and uncertainty about your future, expecting an instant healing from God.

This was one of the first and most difficult lessons I had to learn about God. Just because he can heal and cure us of our problems instantly, doesn't mean he always will. Equally important as our healing is our learning and growing in our understanding of God. Like Naman, God wants to show us more of himself through our hardships. Through enduring in the tough times and keeping faith, we develop a strong bond with our creator. One in which we can all appreciate and come to love. Don't settle for a counterfeit source of peace that promises instant gratification. Rather, rest your heart on God, remodel your expectations and be open to doing things God's way. In the long run, you won't be disappointed.

*Over the next few posts I will continue this series and expand further upon 2 Kings 5 and unveil more practical ways we can learn to trust God during our hardest trials and greatest times of need.*