“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8

A few weeks ago, I prayed with a sister who was looking for a scholarship from the government to attend a school. During our prayers, we asked God to help her to get a scholarship from the government. Three days ago, that sister mentioned in our home group that her school (not the government) has granted her a discount for 3 years for the program. God answered our prayers but the funding came from a different institution. That is what Isaiah 55:8 means by _“your ways are not my ways”_. Even though in the story of that sister, we did not reject the way of God, in many cases in our daily lives we do it and stay too focused on our ways. The story of Naaman will provide such evidence.

Naaman was commander of the army of the King of Aram. This man had leprosy and it is only a young girl who serves his wife who has been able to direct him to the only person who can save him from that sickness (2 kings 5: 3).

However, Naaman had a limitation: his way to getting his healing did not match with the one of God and taking into account his position in his country (2 King 5:1), the majority of us would have probably used the same way. Naaman went to the prophet with different gifts to meet Elisha in person. Unfortunately, the prophet did not approach Naaman, which made him angry. Furthermore, Naaman was prepared to receive his healing through prayer but the prophet deceived him again by using a different approach. He said, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan and you will be cleansed.” (2 kings 5:10). Deceived by the prophet, Naaman resisted his order and replied “I thought that he would come out to me and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me.” After the encouragement of his servant, Naaman then submitted his expectation to the will of God, washed himself in the Jordan 7 times, and became clean like a baby.

From the story of Naaman, it sounds clear that even with strong faith we can miss our miracle or delay it because we are forcing God to use our way. However, God does not always perform his miracle based on our expectations.