Have you ever gotten tired of doing the same things over and over? Have you ever asked for help and the advice you received seemed stupid, or silly at best?

2 Kings chapter five tells us of, Naaman, the commander of the Kings army with leprosy. A young girl told Naaman about the prophet Elisha who could heal him. Can you imagine what Naaman thought when he was told to go dip in the Jordan River? Naaman said, “I am the commander of the Kings army, how dare he send me to that river. I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.”

Did you catch that? He wanted the man of God to do all the work. And so, it is with some of today’s Christians. We want God to do the work, and we take no responsibility for our growth, for our healing, for our lives in general. Naaman was angry, all the while saying what the prophet could have done. Isn’t that just like us? When we don’t like the advice given to us, we then think of better ones, or so we think. It took Naaman’s servants to convince him to follow the advice of the prophet. They said, “if he had told you to do some great thing would you have done it?” Naaman, humbled himself and followed the prophet’s advice to the letter and received his healing.

What about the woman in 2 Kings 4, who cried out to the prophet Elisha for help? The woman shared her situation with the prophet, and Elisha said “How can I help you? First of all, our outlook is different when we ask for help, instead of being told to get help. Elisha gave the woman specific instructions. She did not waver; she followed the prophets’ instructions exactly as they were given to her. Once the oil stopped flowing, the prophet said sell the oil, pay your debts, then you and your sons can live off what is left.

Two scenarios, instant obedience, and delayed obedience. Where do you find yourself on the spectrum? Dare I say, most of us are close to the delayed obedience than the instant obedience. Think about the anguish and despair Naaman must have experienced, unnecessarily, because of his pride. Not to mention the time he wasted. Surely Naaman was desperate for a cure, but how much more was the woman whose husband had died, and bill collectors were about to take her boys in exchange for the debt that she owed. Naaman had to wash only once in the dirty Jordan river and his body was clean. The woman had to collect all the containers she could from her neighbors and keep filling the containers with oil. I’m sure she got tired of pouring the oil, and I can’t imagine the number of containers she filled. The scripture says, the oil stopped flowing when there were no more containers.