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The Hearts Condition is Put to the Test
A Hebrew girl is captured in a raid of Israel and brought to Syria. She is placed in the house of Naaman, commander of the army for the King of Syria. He was a great and honourable man in his masters sight, but not greater nor more honourable than God.
Our Biblical Ground Work: 2 Kings 5
Naaman, the might man of valour, has leprosy. The Hebrew maidservant of his wife said, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” A brave thing to say. Her submissive heart was in good condition because Hebrews typically hated gentiles plus she is one of his slaves. All the more reason for her heart to be hurt.
Naaman seeks permission to go to Israel and he goes carrying a letter with loads of gifts. He first goes to the King but the king does not possess the power to heal. Elisha sends for Naaman but he is surprised by what he has to do to become clean. He is told, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” His entitled heart was revealed in his resistance.
The servants reveals their loving heart for him, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” His entitled heart was changed into a submissive heart and he was healed.
He offered a gift and Elisha refused to be rewarded for the work of the Lord, but Gehazi’s greedy heart saw the reward. He went after Naaman and claimed the reward while Elisha’s eyes were with him. Naaman’s leprosy became the consequence for his heart for deception.
Our Bible Life Lesson: The Fruit of your doings reveals your heart.
Our hearts are open only to the Lord. No one can see your heart but they can see your doings. The world is filled with things our heart longs for but can never satisfy. We can work hard but still not have what we want. When your wrong hearted wants becomes a lust then we will do what it takes to get it.
Our heart will be revealed in our doings. When the lust of the eye is more important than the Lord or the needs of others the consequences can be staggering. But know this for sure – you cannot hide your heart from your doings.
Join me in The Bible Gals community tomorrow at 2pm EST for the Biblical Power Tools to ensure the fruit of your doings is according to God’s vision for you.
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Picking up the Pieces!
I was reading in Genesis recently and was struck by the pieces of unassuming information that reside in that text until I found another one. As I was reading I was reminded of my last 13 years as a Jesus follower and how many pieces of information Jesus has given me along the way that I have had to put together to solve a puzzle. What have I done with all the pieces that God has revealed to me along the way? The habit I have gotten into while reading the Word now is to search my mind whenever I am given a new piece to a puzzling question. I am always pondering information so that I can join it with something else but sometimes it may very well be just the beginning of a new cluster of information. If you read the same story about Joseph in Genesis chapter 37 with chapters 40 and 41 you will find out that all the dreams were in groups of two, why? To get the answer we must first ask the question then wait for more pieces to pick up the answer to the puzzling question!
We can find pieces of information in the Word of God plus the Holy Spirit gives us pieces of information. Even with these different pieces of information we may still not understand although one day when a piece of information is revealed to us all of them will come together. You might have ten pieces of information that make some sense by themselves but remain incomplete together then one day you get another bit of information and all the other pieces come together into that perfect understanding. It is a wonderful thing when that full understanding comes but it is also a wonderful thing to have the pieces as well. These pieces keep us in communion with Jesus to get the answers. Pieces to a puzzle add intrigue to our lives.What do we do with these pieces of information? Jacob and Mary did what was best and we can do it too. When Joseph told his family about the dreams, they hated him but his father kept it in his mind. Mary, mother of Jesus, did that same thing. Every time Mary got a piece of information about Jesus she kept it in her heart and when He was dying on the cross I am sure that she remembered that she was told by Simeon that her own soul would be pierced (Luke 2:35). I am sure that she began picking up all of the pieces that God revealed to her during the 33 years of Jesus’ life. Keeping the pieces in our heart/mind is exactly what we need to do to make sure that we understand everything that God is revealing to us!
