Behold I Thought

"But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, behold I thought, He will

surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God,
and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper." (II Kings 5:11)

It's easy to have preconceived ideas and assumptions about things especially

things about which we know little or nothing. II Kings 5 tells us of a man
who was a great man with his master, a warrior, honorable and a mighty man
of valor. But, the Bible says, he was a leper. Leprosy was perhaps the
worst disease of that day. If one had leprosy he had to keep his distance
from others and cry, "Unclean, unclean," so that people would not come near
him. Therefore, Naaman was about to become a social outcast. Encouraged by
a little Jewish slave girl to seek help from the prophet of God in Israel,
Naaman wound up at the door of Elisha the prophet.

The prophet of God was unimpressed with the entourage that accompanied

Naaman to his house. Elisha never came out of his house but sent a
messenger to tell Naaman to dip seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman
said, "Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me, and do all the
things I thought he would do." "My way is better," he thought.

How many times do we think our way is better than God's way of receiving

eternal life, of living the Christian life, of having a Christian home, or
identifying Christian values?  "Behold, I thought," may sound as good as
what anyone else on your street thinks, but, if it is not God's thoughts,
God's plans, God's design, it is destined to failure.