2 Kings 5:1-19

I remember as a pre-teen being challenged by an evangelist during revival to go home and look in my Bible to see if I could find where it talks about 7 ducks in a pond. I went home and with my parents help, looked in concordances and study helps to find everything I could, concerning ducks. I couldn’t find 7 ducks anywhere in the Bible. The evangelist was clever. Because of a slight, play on words, he had caused me to dive into the Word of God. Well, the ducks weren’t animals, but an action taken by a man named Naaman. You see Naaman had leprosy. It was a dreaded disease. He had been told the way to be healed was to dip 7 times in the Jordan River. Do you get it now? He had to “duck” 7 times into the water. Naaman was upset and didn’t want to do. He thought the man of God would have done something special for him to be healed. By the way, the Jordan River wasn’t that clean and who would want to dip 7 times in that? How many times have we failed to receive from God simply because we didn’t want to do what He said or we thought our way was better?

Well, from studying about Naaman, I found some important things that might help us along our journey of life. Thing #1 is “stuff happens”. Naaman was a mighty warrior and probably thought he was invincible and nothing would happen to him. Listen, we all think our life will be the one without trouble or tragedy. We just need to remember, that stuff happens. We don’t choose it, but rather it chooses us. It is not necessarily a punishment, but just the fact that stuff happens. Things #2 is “know where to go for help”. When Naaman got leprosy, somebody in his household told him what he needed to go to the prophet of God because he could help. When stuff happens in our lives, we need to know the right place to go. Take it to God. He is a present help in time of trouble. Thing #3 is “be obedient”. Naaman didn’t like what the prophet said, but once he was obedient, he got what he needed. I like the words of Jesus own mother in John 2:5, “…whatever he says unto you, do it.”

So when stuff happens in your life, remember where to go and be obedient to what you’re told, even if you have to duck 7 times in a nasty pond. YUCK! Hey, it’s just a thought!