Believing

Sometimes it is very difficult to believe in God's word.  Take Namaan today from 2 Kings 5:1-19a.  He can't believe that the prophet Elisha has given him the instructions to wash in the Jordan seven times and he will be cured of his leprosy.  Especially since it is not a river he is familiar with, not a river from his own homeland, and not seen as a river of any power.  Yet his servant convinces him that if the prophet had given him something difficult to do he would have done it, why not try this.  He goes and washes seven times and is cured.

There was a man in South Sudan who was obviously a little worse off than anyone I had seen there.  He was wearing a winter coat and it was dirty with holes and he was sitting at the side of the road.  I wondered about his story and asked Isaac one day when we were headed back from the market and the man was on the road ahead of us.  He told me the man was from Uganda and lived in a cave in Mt. Kedo and that he was not right in the head.  He also said we should never give up on people because we never know when God might heal someone.  He had heard of a story of a man who would adopt these kind of people, come and walk along side them for a time and they would be healed.  There mind was just like a normal person and they lived productive lives.  We never know how or when God will act in someones life Isaac told me.

I have always believed that God walks beside us in our lives we have only to recognize and see that God is there.  Believing goes to the heart of this. Sometimes believing means taking the time to walk with someone else.  Namaan had to walk into the waters by himself, but his servants kept pointing him in the direction of God being beside him in some way.  Their words of encouragement kept him going right into the waters.  Sometimes we just need to recognize that there are companions on the journey.  They are simply pointers to God in our lives and can help us to see the waters of our own healing.