In his book The Secret Place of Thunder, author John Starke observes: “Our culture teaches us that the most important things about us are what can be performed before others. Jesus, on the other hand, teaches us that the most important things about us are practiced in secret.”
We give up a great deal trying to go public with our obedience when Jesus prefers it to be an intimate connection between Him and ourselves.
Naaman didn’t understand this. Here was a man with a serious problem, but he wanted a certain kind of solution to it … something flashy and newsworthy. The kind of ordeal that podcasts and miniseries are made of.
But the solution God offered him through the prophet Elisha wasn’t flashy at all, just … simple: “Go and wash in the Jordan [river] seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean” (2 Kings 5:10 ESV).
Simply obey a simple command. That’s all Naaman had to do. Accept it and be healed, or try to turn it into a spectacle and keep the leprosy.
And, like Naaman, if we truly want to be freed and healed, we will need to move into the quiet place of simple obedience.
But I am afraid that,
as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness,
your minds will be led astray
from the simplicity and purity of
devotion to Christ.
(2 Corinthians 11:3 NASB)