“But doom to you who fight your Maker— you’re a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: ‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’” (Isaiah 45:9, The Message)
Do you ever feel like God gets it wrong? That he should do this or that? That he should do it this way instead of that way? At some point, we probably all have felt that way. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.“ (Proverbs 16:25, NIV)
This Sunday we will meet Naaman (2 Kings 5). He is a very successful “type A” personality. He’s an army commander, so he’s used to giving orders. People do what he says and no one tells him what to do. Then he meets Elisha.
Through Elisha, God gives Naaman an order – one that could easily be obeyed. The problem: Naaman didn’t want to do it. He thought it was stupid – a bad idea – one that it would never work. In fact, he is so offended by the order that he almost misses an amazing miracle God had in store for him.
Ultimately, Naaman acquiesces and God heals him of a terrible disease – but it wasn’t until he humbled himself to do things God’s way instead of his own.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week. Maybe God’s way is different from our way simply to be different. What I mean is, what if God wants to see if we’ll humble ourselves to obey and do things his way?
All I know is that God sets the terms – the way the potter makes a jar. When we come to him, it’s on his terms, not ours.
