Little People

   Read 2 Kings 5:1 - 15

   Here she is a little maid, a no named captive servant girl, serving the wife Naaman the captain of the host of the king of Syria.  I think Francis A. Schaeffer had people like her in mind when he said, “As there are no little people in God’s sight, so there are no little places.”
   This little maid seeing Naaman’s leprosy spoke out. “Would to God my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would cure him of his leprosy.” There are two stories in this account. One is the story of Naaman who in desperation goes to see the prophet in Samaria. His exercise of faith brings about his conversion and a cure. At first Naaman is resistant to the prophet’s instructions. After being disappointed that the prophet did not miraculously cure him, he humbled himself and dipped seven times in the Jordan River. After the seventh dip, he comes up cured of his leprosy. He returns to Elisha and declares, “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.” The evidence of true faith is obedience. Actions speak louder than words. James said, “even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. [2:17]”
   What are lessons we can learn from Naaman? One, God doesn’t do things the way we expect Him to act. [Isaiah 55:8] Two, before a person can personally know God he must humble himself. Three, the true evidence of faith is obedience. 
   The second story is about the little maid. Regardless of her circumstances, she was willing to speak out for her God. Again the words of Francis A. Schaeffer when he said we should be “wholly committed to God in the place where God wants” us and that means “being what he wants me to be, where he ants me to be.” Instead of bemoaning her circumstances, the little maid used them to speak for God to the second highest official of the Syrian empire. In spite of the fact he had taken her away from her home and enslaved her, she was concerned for the spiritual welfare of Naaman. She had to get his attention so she addresses his physical situation. People who will not listen to our message in normal circumstances are more open in desperate times. The way to bring Naaman to God was to make him realize only God can change his circumstances. But first God had to change Naaman. The real life lesson we can learn from this little maid is that it doesn’t make any difference who we are or what are our circumstances, we can have an effective voice for God.  Paul adds this commentary in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
   How we live for God where we are today is what counts not what we plan to do in the future.