Don’t Let the Mud Keep You from Your Miracle

2 Kings 5:1, ESV

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

2 Kings 5:10-15a, ESV

10And Elisha sent a messenger to him [Naaman], saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 11But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. 13But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel;”

The Jordan River is a muddy river—and Naaman had to dip in it seven times.

And, because this was not what he had expected or imagined, this muddy river almost cost Naaman his miracle.

God had fully intended to heal Naaman, but the process was going to be muddier and lengthier than Naaman had expected—and than he would have preferred. God could have done the miracle exactly as Naaman had imagined, but God didn’t only want to change him on the outside, He wanted to change him on the inside.

And the same is true with us.

I don’t know what you’re believing God for today—or how you’ve imagined it to go down. But know this: if it’s messier and lengthier than you imagined—and preferred—then God is not only doing something outwardly, he’s also doing something inwardly. 

He’s not just interested in changing our lives on the outside, He’s interested in changing our lives on the inside.

So, keep trudging through the mud. 

Your miracle is in-process—and so are you.