Pastor Aaron Prelock continues the series on faith and preaches from 2 Kings 5
Bloomington Bible Church Sermons
Faltering Faith
I'm going to Second Kings chapter 5. Second Kings chapter 5. We're looking at portraits of faith. Four men and women. Two men, two women, two Old Testament, two New Testament. All Gentiles, all outside the covenant family. But four individuals who show remarkable faith and give us a remarkable understanding of God's kindness. How God works with those even outside the community, but how God works in those who act in faith towards Him. Let's look together. Second Kings chapter 5. I'll read the whole chapter. Second Kings chapter 5. This is the word of the Lord. "Naman, 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." Now, the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel. And she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his Lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you, Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy." And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me." But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know there is a profit in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean." But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought 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. Are not Abana and far par, 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. But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word that the prophet has spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you wash and be clean? So 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. Then 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. So accept now a present from your servant." But he said, "As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive none." And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, "If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but the Lord. And this matter may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of ribbon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of ribbon when I bow myself in the house of ribbon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter." He said to him, "Go in peace." But when Naaman had gone for him a short distance, Gahai's eye, the servant of Elijah, the man of God, said, "See, my master has spared this name in the Syrian and not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him." So Gahai's eye followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, "Is all well?" And he said, "All is well. My master has sent me to say there have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim, two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing." And Naaman said, "Be pleased to accept two talents." And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of clothing and laid them on two of his servants. And they carried them before Gahai's eye. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house. And he sent them in a way and they departed. He went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, "Where have you been, Gahai's eye?" And he said, "Your servant went nowhere." But he said to him, "Did not my heart go with you? Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, all of orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you in your descendants forever." So he went out from his presence, a leper, like snow. Let's pray. Father, we praise you for your word. You have spoken to us. Father, this true story is thousands of years old. And yet it speaks to our condition today. Father, help us to look to you as the God who heals. And may we find healing for our souls today. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our Savior, amen. I want to just walk through the text. We're going to focus mostly on the first part of this chapter, verses 1 to 14, really verses 1 to 19. I just want to walk through this passage. And as we go, I will draw application for us from it. Notice from the very beginning of this chapter, we have a big God presented to us. From the very beginning, from the first verse. Now, who is this character, Naaman? It's a popular children's story. Anyone remember flannel graph? I went to a-- it's a harvest party, because we didn't do Halloween parties. I went to a harvest party, not dressed as a zombie. I didn't know what zombies were. Dressed as Naaman, one year as a kid. I always thought this was a cool story. My mother did make up on half my face with white paint and red splotches. And I got to wear a plastic sword to school. I thought it was cool. Naaman's a cool story. It's one of these classic Old Testament stories. I think we miss, though, some of the real lessons here. This is a miracle. God cleanses a leper, Wahoo. I mean, that's great for Naaman. But I don't think that's actually the point of this story. Yay, a leper gets cleansed. I think there's more going on here. Now, what do we know of Naaman? Well, first, he's a commander of the army of the king of Syria. Now, if you're new to studying the Bible, there's a few things you've got to learn. Sometimes names are different in different translations. Syria is sometimes called Aramia, or Aram. It's northeast of Israel. So if Israel's here next to the Mediterranean, Syria or Aramia is up here, this is not Assyria. This is just Syria. It's a small regional power. Never becomes a superpower like Assyria, but it's a big enough power to create real problems for Israel. God uses Syria, even as we read here, to discipline Israel. They're powerful enough that when they go into battle with King Ahab at the end of first kings, they defeat Israel. And King Ahab dies. Don't feel too bad for him because it was his own stupid fault. Israel and Syria are kind of frenemies. They get along with each other. They have good diplomatic relationships with each other, and they're frequently at war. They're also, as we read in this passage, Syria is sending its military in raiding bands into Israel. So it's a complicated time. By the way, that encourages us, doesn't it? The Bible times just seem so much more simple than our times sometimes. And it's good for us to remember today. We're not the first generation of God's people to live in complicated political times. Now, Naaman is the commander of this Syrian army. And probably the closest analogy we would have to something like this today is think the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. This is a governmental power, and yet they are acting in state-sponsored terrorism. Syrian army is sending raiding bands into another country to take resources, people, just to cause havoc. So from the very beginning, we are presented with this guy, Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria. Who can we just say this way is not a nice dude? He's not a good dude. As we'll read through the rest of the story, he's not as bad as they come. But this is not a good man. This is not a godly man. This is not a righteous man. This is a pagan working for a pagan king in a pagan country worshipping a pagan god engaged in state-sponsored terrorism. And what do we read about him in this first verse? He 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. This is a guy you don't mess with. This is a guy God is using to discipline Israel. This is a powerful man. But he's powerful because God is using him. Now, there's no sense here that he knows that. He probably thinks he's a big and bad dude. His boss, the king of Syria, thinks so. He probably has no idea that he's been successful because there is someone behind the scenes determining that he will be successful. Just like we see later on in Daniel with King Nebuchadnezzar. God has to humble King Nebuchadnezzar before he can understand the source of his greatness. So from the beginning of this passage, we are presented with a big god who's doing things, his people and those on the ground don't understand. And in this life, can't understand. We also see this big god present in these first verses. The brothers and sisters, this is astounding. The god is using not just this big bad dude, Naaman, commander of the Syrian armies. He's also using a little girl. We skip over verse two so quickly. Now, the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. God is using not just the big military commander, but the little slave girl who will never see her family again. The text doesn't tell us what's happened other than the fact that she's carried off. We can imagine what she's experienced, what she's seen. She will never go back to her home country. She's a slave in a foreign country. For all she knows, her parents are dead. She may have even watched it at the hands of the Syrian raiding bands. This is a girl who has suffered profoundly. And here, God is about to do something through her. And this brings us really to our first application, brothers and sisters. Second Kings 5 opens up by reminding us there is no pain or no trauma that we can face, that God can't use to do something magnificent through us. This is not a passage that makes light of our pain or pushes it aside. This is not a passage that can't wrestle with or grapple with the reality and messes of life in a sin cursed world. This is a passage that just fronts it to us. This little girl is carried off as a slave before the man who humanly speaking is responsible for all of her pain. And God is about to do something incredible through her. There is no pain or trauma that we can face, that God cannot bring good out of it. Brothers and sisters, this is a lesson we must learn before we face the difficulty. Otherwise, we're going to be struggling against the storm in the midst of it, grasping at something that holds true. But it's a truth, even in the midst of the storm as well. God can bring good and beauty out of any suffering. Passage continues. This man, this mighty man, this big bad dude is a man of valor, but he has a fatal flaw. He's a leper. Now we think leper seen, again, if you grew up in church, you'll remember the flannel graphs and it was like zombies before zombies. Or if you remember Ben Hur, when his sister and mother, they're flesh half eaten away. That's not always what leprosy is, and it's something that takes a long time to develop. But what we do know about leprosy from the Old Testament is, one, it's nasty, and two, it's usually fatal. There was no cure. So this guy has a death sentence. He's big, he's bad, he's fighting, he's killing, but he's going to die, and it's going to be a slow and painful death. And what's fascinating to me about this passage is this little girl looks at her master and says, if only he would see the true prophet in Israel, he could be cured. I don't comprehend that. This girl has been carried off from her homeland. She'll never go back. And she has compassion for the man humanly speaking, who is responsible for all her pain. What does she want? She wants to see Naaman cured. This is astounding. And again, what's even almost more astounding is she tells this to her mistress. Her mistress tells this to Naaman. Naaman listens to his wife, Naaman listens to his slave girl, and goes off to try and find this cure. The brothers and sisters notice how God uses faith. Little bits of faith. This girl, despite all that she has suffered, has faith that God can cure this pagan army commander. Naaman, despite his paganism, has some measure of faith, perhaps not genuine faith yet, but he believes that maybe there just maybe could be a cure for him. And so he goes off, writes a letter, and starts off towards Israel. First lesson, there's no pain or trauma, so great God can't bring good out of it. Let's look at verses 4 to 7, though. The story continues. Naaman goes off towards Israel rather than raiding Israel, rather than pillaging Israel, rather than robbing, stealing, and murdering from Israel. Goes off with, if we're to make this in today's equivalent, about $5 and 1/2 million worth of loot. It's kind of ironic. It's kind of funny. Normally, he comes with armed men to take money away from Israel. Now he comes with armed men to bring money into Israel. I think it's funny. He goes, he has a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel saying, hey, please heal my servant. Cleanse my servant Naaman. And the reaction from the king of Israel is priceless. I mean, it's really sad, but it's priceless. He freaks out. He's trying to pick a fight with me. Obviously, I can't heal him. Duh. What's the irony here? What's the irony? Who lives in the king of Israel's land? Elisha. If you know the book of Second Kings, we read in the previous passages that Elijah brings the dead-- or Elisha. Elisha. Elijah's the end of first Kings. That's, I don't know, 10, 20 years before. Elisha is Second Kings. Elisha does miracles, raises a little boy from the dead, brings life where there's only death at the end of chapter 4. Elisha has Elijah's power from God to do miracles. The king of Israel is either completely ignorant of it, or, like the previous king of Israel, is just angry at the prophet. Notice that you can be so close to the truth without it having a transforming effect on your life. Here's the king of Israel, the prophet of the living God, a man who can work wonders through the power of the Holy Spirit, is living within his borders, and he's oblivious to it. And I wonder if there's someone like that here. Maybe you've grown up in church, and you've heard these messages for so many years. Maybe you're new, and you like the family, you like the community, you like the vibe, but you've not actually submitted yourself to Jesus as king, as Lord and master. It doesn't matter how close you are to the truth. If the truth doesn't reach your heart. If the truth doesn't penetrate our hearts, put our souls and our wills to death, and bring life, the new life of faith. And if you're not a Christian, I would urge you, watch out that you don't harden yourself against the only message that brings life. Don't think that being close to the truth will have any good for your soul if you don't let it transform you. Let's keep going, verses 8 to 14. Notice that Naaman is a really, really important man. Have I mentioned he's a really bad dude? Commander of the army of Syria, a great man in high favor, a mighty man of valor, walking with about 5 and 1/2 million in cash, plus nice clothes, with his armed entourage riding into Israel. They go to the king of Israel, the king of Israel freaks out, and the prophet says, why are you freaking out? Let him come see me, I love this line. Let him come to me that he may know there is a prophet in Israel. Guys, there were lots of prophets in Israel, but they were all duds. They worshiped Baal. They couldn't do a thing. And Elisha is saying, let him come to me so that you can see your idolatry has no power. Your gods can do nothing for you. Let him come and see the prophet of the true God of Israel. Naaman comes to this prophet with his horses and chariots. Chariots were kind of the tanks of the ancient world. This would have been an impressive entourage. This would have been terrifying. The Israelites, when they would have seen Naaman and his men coming into Israel, would have thought, this is about to get really bad for us, not that this guy's coming to us for help. And Naaman comes up with his horses and chariots and stands at the door of Elisha's house. You can imagine Naaman and his imperial regalia walking up to the door and all of his men behind him in parade formation and knocking ceremoniously on the door, except he doesn't get to because this mousy little servant opens the door. Yes, you just go washing the Jordan seven times and you'll be fine. Shuts the door and that's it. Can you see Naaman start fuming? Can you see the steam coming out his ears and his face going to red, to purple? He says, the Jordan, the Jordan, one of his troops says, yes, that was the river we crossed about 30 miles ago. And he goes stratospheric. Are not the rivers of Damascus better? Apparently the Jordan River isn't the nicest cleanest river in the world. Okay, fine. Aren't the waters of Damascus better than all of this? I thought this great prophet would come out and respect me as a great man. You know, great man to great man. We're kind of on the same plane here and wave his hand and call upon the name of God and do some magical cure and wash in the Jordan. Naaman is a great man, but not before God. But what does God care of his greatness? Well, God wants to see his name and faith. Not his power, not his military prowess, not his wealth, but does he actually believe that the Lord, the God of Israel is the one, the only one who can heal him. So Naaman turns and went away in a rage. I kind of like that. I appreciate that. I get ticked off sometimes more often than I should. I can appreciate this guy. This is a manly guy. This is a warrior and he does not like simple answers. This is too easy. Just wash. This is beneath him. And so he's furious. And off he goes. How many of us would be like that? And yet, verse 13, his servants come near and say to him, my father-- again, I'm baffled by this. Naaman is a tough dude. He's a hard man and he's not so hard that he won't listen to his wife, to his slave girl, or to his attendants. He has a temper, but he's willing to listen to reason. Men, there's some application to that, to us in that. Are we willing to listen to those in our family, our wives? Sometimes it's appropriate for us to listen to our children and hear what they're trying to say. To listen to those under our authority or do we use our authority harshly and unwilling to listen unyielding? But Naaman, in his fury, rejects the word of the Lord and runs the opposite direction. And my favorite part of the passage is that when his servants come to him and remind him, if Elisha hits the translation here, it's not the most helpful. The point is the servants are saying, look, if he had told you to do something great, you would have done that. How much more should you do something simple? He humbles himself. He dips himself seven times in the Jordan. He listens to the word of the Lord and God heals him. God heals this pagan warrior who's caused so much pain to God's people. After he completely disregarded and in a huff, turned on his heel and fled from the word of the Lord. And yet when he humbles himself and comes back, God still heals him. If Naaman's an example of faith, he's a pretty bad example. Where's his confidence? He's arrogant. He has an inflated view of himself. He openly disregards the word of the Lord. And yet when he humbles himself, we could say when he repents, God still does the miracle. Naaman's insulted by this and on a human level, rightly so. But he's willing to soften his heart. He's willing to be humble. Brothers and sisters, this is our God who accepts faith even when it's faltering, even when it's incomplete, even when it's weak, even when it's broken, even when it's not enough. God accepts the meager faith of Naaman and still performs the miracle. I often don't think this is who God is, but this isn't the view of God I have. I tend to think God is more the God who responds to Gehazi, who later on lies, steals, misrepresents God, misrepresents Elisha, does so for his own benefit so he can get rich off of it. And how does God respond to Gehazi? Well, Naaman's leprosy gets put on Gehazi and his family forever. I tend to think, okay, that's God's MO, that's how God interacts with this. One, miss up, squash, you're done. And we have to remember that Gehazi's punishment is just. There is something that Gehazi does. This is more than just garden variety, oops, my faith was weak in a moment. Gehazi has some real problems right here. We're not gonna get into it too much today. But notice that despite God being the one who judges, Gehazi for his deception, for misrepresenting the true and living God, God is also the one who accepts Naaman and his faltering, weak, incomplete faith. In other words, brothers and sisters, it's never too late to exercise faith, at least in this life. I'm speaking to those who know the Lord. I'm speaking to those who are Christians. It's never too late to do the right thing. It's never too late to trust in God, to exercise faith in God. Naaman's riding away in a huff. You can imagine the clouds of dust behind him. And one of his servants is trying to just ride up fast enough to tap him on the shoulder and say, "Hey, you might consider doing this." I know it's beneath you. Naaman stops. He calms his heart somehow. Can you imagine how silly he must have felt walking down the edge of the Jordan? Probably in front of his whole company of troops. And dips himself in the Jordan to strip off his armor, to lay aside his weapons, to put aside his magnificent clothes, and to wash. This is a profound picture of repentance. This is demonstrating to us what our repentance is like, that we acknowledge the sinful anger of our own hearts, our own self-centeredness, our own enslavement to our own perspectives, and our own thinking and our own wisdom and stopping, turning around, going the other way, and then doing what God has said. Then verses 15 to 17, notice God's compassion with Naaman's sincerity. There's a contrast here in the rest of the chapter between Naaman's sincerity and the prophet blessing him. And Gahaziah's complete faithlessness. Gahaziah is greedy. He's a lot. He mince interprets God. He manipulates Naaman. He's doing it for his own benefit, and Naaman is rewarded and praised, and Gahaziah is cursed. Let us notice brothers and sisters, especially from the rest of this chapter. God's mercy is on the humble and repentant. But with the proud and self-confident, God is against them. God's mercy is with the humble and repentant. Is that us? And let's not rush too quickly to think, "Oh, I'm a Christian. I must be humble and repentant." No, humble and repentant isn't something we do. It's who we are. It's what characterizes our hearts. So also proud and self-confident. It's not just proud and self-confident actions. It's a characteristic of our heart. Are we humble and repentant, or are we proud and self-confident? Again, God's compassion. He comes back and stands before the prophet. It seems that this time the prophet is willing to see him. This time he comes back. Not as a man of valor. Not as a big, bad dude. But as a man who's humbled, because he has seen the power of the living God. And behold, I know there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now he wants to try not to pay off this God, but to give him an offering of thanksgiving. His skin has been changed, but more importantly, his heart has been changed. It's almost funny, verses 17 to 18. He says, okay, you won't take an offering fine. Then can I have something? He recognizes he's the debtor in this. Can I have something? Let me have some earth, so that I can offer sacrifices on Israelite-ish earth, rather than defiling worship of the true God with my own pagan land. All of what Naaman says here, okay, look, from a Deuteronomy perspective is pretty bad here. This is not how you're supposed to worship God. And yeah, I love that in this passage, that's why she isn't like the church lady shaking her finger at him. No, no, no, you shouldn't do that. That's not how it works here. There's a realism. Naaman is blessed for what weak and faltering and incomplete faith he shows. This is our God. This is how God interacts with us. When we demonstrate faith before him, he receives it. When we're proud and self-confident, he rejects us. Let me give three brief applications in light of this then. Three brief applications in light of what we've seen from 2 Kings, chapter 5. First brothers and sisters, this is kind of basic child level, but we need to obey in the small things. We need to obey in the small things. This Jewish girl who's carried off as a slave to Syria is faithful in her master's house. Despite the pain and trauma she has experienced, she carries herself well and performs the service that is expected of her in such a way that those who own her life listen to her. She obeys in her domestic service, so much so that her mistress notices her and listens to her when she speaks. You and I are called to obedience, perhaps not as dramatic of things, but we are still called to obedience in our daily lives, with our employers and our homes, with those around us. Let's not despise small obedience. It matters. It adds up. It's our obedience in daily little things that shapes our character. Naaman is called to obey in a small thing. Go dip yourself seven times in the Jordan and be clean. It's a little thing, but if he despised it, he would have remained a leper. Life is usually not radical. Life is usually not extraordinary. It's the small things in our lives. The small, daily, often insignificant and unseen examples of obedience that show where our faith truly is. By way of applying it in the reverse. We can pretty much guarantee this isn't the first time Gehazi had disobeyed. At least not in his heart. Let's obey in the small things. The second application. Know that God accepts even flawed obedience when truly offered in faith. Now there's a Gehazi-ish strain in all of us that wants to say, "I just want to do enough." Let me just do enough to get God's blessing. I'm not going to do too much. Don't want to go over the top now. That'd be weird. I just want to do enough. If that's you, Gehazi's judgment needs to sit on you. You need to be concerned about that. You need to be warned against that. But for those who are aware of their sin, again, those who are humble and repentant, those who came to the supper as those who are ill need medicine and those who are hungry need food, you're aware of your sin. You're aware of the incompleteness of your faith. And hear from this passage that God accepts even your flawed obedience if it is offered genuinely, truly in faith. In other words, don't let your disobedience and the incompleteness of your obedience. Don't let the feelings of faithlessness in your soul that you're all too aware of. Don't let that put you off trying. God will still receive you. There was an idea years ago, 10, 15 years ago, that it wasn't stated this crassly but it was responding against the moralism of a previous generation. And essentially saying it only matters if my heart's right. An idea that came out of it, again, it wasn't stated this crassly was, I might as well not obey at all if my heart's bad. So I'm just a hypocrite and I'm going to get judged. Scripture tells us obey from the heart. But even when our heart is not fully in it, brothers and sisters know that God will accept even an incomplete obedience if it is offered truly in faith. Naaman is angry and rejects the word of the Lord. But when he turns, he's cleansed. Those are the times when we recognize our obedience is incomplete that we need to cry out to God. Say, "God, help me. I don't have the faith for what I need to do right now. God, would you help me? Would you give me the faith that I don't have? Would you help me obey when I don't want to?" I know that God will accept that. Third and finally, to bring us back to the beginning, brothers and sisters, we must remember that God can bring good even out of chaos and trauma. God can bring good out of even chaos and trauma. There's a lot in this passage that we can't get into this morning. There's a lot that I don't understand. This girl's parents, God didn't seem to hear their prayers. This little girl, can you imagine how many times she must have cried out to God? Let me go home. And yet God uses that. Naaman's leprosy, "Oh, can you imagine how much this great man must have raged and quaked when he realized he was going to die this awful death?" And yet his leprosy leads him to life. His death sentence of a diagnosis brings him to the true and living God, brings him to the only God who could make not his body cleansed, but his soul cleansed. God can bring good out of any chaos or trauma. We have to be careful how we minister that to one another. That is stout medicine. We want to be careful not to give that glibly or superficially. But let each of us remember that ourselves, whatever pain we face, whatever struggles we have faced, whatever trials God has called us to go through, God intends to bring good out of it. We can believe that. We may not feel it. In fact, we probably won't feel it, at least at the beginning. But God can bring good out of all the chaos and trauma that we face. He has a purpose, a plan for it. If this big God presented at the beginning of 2 Kings has a plan for us or had a plan for Naaman and this little girl, he has a plan for us. As Joel prayed earlier, if he has a plan to save us from our sins, surely he will use all of the little sufferings that we face. And the big sufferings. If he has a solution to the biggest problem that we have, our sin against him, will he not use everything else that we face for our good and for his glory? You see, 2 Kings is not the story of a brilliant man, a great warrior who gets better. It's the story of a humble man whose soul is fixed. It's the story of a little girl whose faith God uses to work miracles, to work wonders, namely that the humble and repentant find forgiveness. Through faith, ordinary faith, incomplete faith, faltering faith, but faith nonetheless in the true and living God, the one God who is Lord and Savior of all who come to him in faith. Let's pray. Father, you are the same God for us that you were to Naaman and to this girl and to Elisha. Father, we humbly confess that when we don't see working miracles and powerful and wonders in our lives, Father, our hearts grow cold and our faith grows weak. Forgive us. We are far more like Yehazi in the King of Israel than we'd like to admit. Your Father, strengthen our hearts. Help us believe that you are the true and living God. You are the one who hears the prayers of your servants. You are the God who can do all things according to your will. Help us believe that, especially when our hearts are prone to wander. Father, may that faith motivate our daily, ordinary obedience. In whatever situations you have placed us in, may we trust that you are accomplishing something through us. When you bring us blessings of pleasure, oh, how we love those, and when you bring us blessings of pain, may we remember you are accomplishing good in the lives of your people. Help us be repentant when our faith is not what it should be. Help us to acknowledge the weakness of our souls and the imperfections in our obedience. We come back to you humbly, pleading for your mercy, recognizing our dependence on your grace. Father, would you use us, as you use this little girl, to share the message of your forgiveness with those around us. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]