16 March 2020 - better plans than ours

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Why have you torn your garments?
Let him come to me and find out
that there is a prophet in Israel.”

Let's not give up! There is hope for us. The Spirit of prophecy is still present in the Church. His healing touch is still available.

Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar,
better than all the waters of Israel?

We need to be careful about expectations because the "heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps" (see Proverbs 16:9). We get fixated by creating the ideal circumstances that would surround our imagined healing in picturesque and cinematic fashion. But God's actual plans to heal us tend to bypass such grandiose scenery and instead cut directly to the heart. God's power can be equally present anywhere. But it often requires humility to open ourselves to it.

All the more now, since he said to you,
‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”
So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

We need to be careful, too, about our sense of deserving. The more we realize that all is unmerited favor the more we can receive. The more we believe we deserve something the more God typically withholds it from us to show us the falsity of this belief. He heals precisely because he delights to heal not because we somehow earn it.

When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.

Let us turn back to the LORD in humility. Let us listen to him as he gives us the specific directions each of us needs to wash ourselves clean. While we do, let us go with a greater certainty than our sense of deserving could ever provide us. God's love for us is a certainty. It is the anchor of our hope.

Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;