God’s Ways are Higher than Ours

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)

“But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.’” (2 Kings 5:11)

Namaan, the Syrian general, was furious! When he came to see Elisha to heal his leprosy, he never imagined Elisha would send a messenger. He assumed Elisha himself would come out, call on the name of the Lord, wave his hand over his leprosy and cure him. How mistaken he was!

God had a different plan. Perhaps he wanted to break Namaan’s pride. Namaan was told to go dunk himself in the Jordan River seven times. This made no sense to Naaman, and he almost missed the blessing of God’s healing by refusing at first to do as he was commanded. He mistakenly thought he could have dunked himself in a river back home that was, in his opinion, cleaner than the Jordan.

The Scripture makes it clear that God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. Often, we don’t understand why certain things are happening or why we need to go through certain experiences. Perhaps, like Namaan, we need discipline or God needs to break our pride.

In Kingdom of God, we study the people in the Old Testament because we can learn so many lessons that we need to apply to our own lives. This is a part of soaking our heart, as a sponge, in the Word of God.

Today, ask yourself:

Am I refusing to obey God in an area of my life, assuming that I have a better plan than God has for me? Will I humbly confess my pride and ask God to show me His plan?