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Sometimes these explanations of bad days are true. What do you first tell yourself and others when you sense something is wrong with you emotionally? But, like Naaman, I had people in my life who urged me to see that getting my life back was more than worth a dip in a dirty river.Īdmit to Yourself and Others That You Are Depressed I, like Naaman, resented and resisted every one of these. I want to tell you about seven tough steps you may have to take in order to defeat depression. Naaman was told to bathe himself in the Jordan seven times. You, like Naaman, will have to bathe in what appear to you to be some dirty rivers. Healing will require you to do some things you don’t want to do. If you want to find the healing you need, you’ll have to learn it too. In order to defeat depression, I had to learn a tough but necessary lesson from Naaman. What I’m sharing with you is one way I’m trying to keep that promise. One of the promises I made to myself and to God was, that if I got out of that valley alive, I would try to use that experience to help others. I, like Naaman, was a respected person whose life was rotting away underneath the armor of my pastoral persona. Depression is the title of a very dark difficult chapter of my life. Healing required him to do some things he just didn’t want to do.ĭepression is not an academic subject for me. Naaman did get his life back, but not until he realized that he wasn’t too good to bathe in a dirty river.
#JORDAN RIVER BIBLE SERIES#
They come to him and ask, “If Elisha had asked you to do some really hard thing, like sitting through a sermon series on leprosy, to get well, wouldn’t you do it? So why not do what he says? Swallow your pride and take a few dips in the Jordan. The story might have ended very sadly right here, if not for the caring counsel of Naaman’s servants. He wasn’t going to immerse himself in any dirty river once, much less seven times, no matter what Elisha said. He’d had enough of Elisha’s medical advice. Why couldn’t he just bathe there? Naaman was so frustrated with the prophet’s advice that “he turned and went off in a rage.” He was walking away. He had better rivers back home, he believed. Naaman didn’t like the looks of the Jordan. Elisha told him to bathe himself in the muddy murky waters of the Jordan River seven times. And when the message came, Naaman didn’t like the prescription. He merely sent word about what Naaman would have to do for himself. He thought Elisha would greet him face to face, call upon God, wave his hand over Naaman’s rotting flesh, and he would be cured. His search for healing isn’t going at all as he had expected. Instead, he sends a message, by way of his servant, with instructions for Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River seven times in order to be healed. He doesn’t even welcome him into his home. When Naaman, military leader and hero of Aram, arrives at Elisha’s door, the prophet doesn’t come out to greet him. Don’t ask a politician to do a prophet’s work. Elisha gets word that the king is bent out of shape and offers to take this patient off of his hands.
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The king of Israel thinks this request for healing is a trick intended to pick a fight and resume hostilities. Naaman arrives in Israel and things begin to get complicated. The king sends him enthusiastically, with a letter requesting safe passage and a large gift of gratitude to give to the prophet for his healing work. Feeling a surge of hope, Naaman asks the king’s permission to travel to a rival kingdom to seek help.
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His wife’s servant girl, captured in a raid upon Israel, tells her mistress that Elisha, the prophet in her homeland, can cure Naaman. Naaman receives a message of hope from a very unlikely source.
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He needed to be healed, but didn’t know any way that miracle could happen. His problem was taking his life away from him, a little at a time. Underneath his armor and all his military regalia, Naaman’s body was rotting. He was a great man, but he had a great problem. His master, the King, held him in high regard. He was successful, leading his army to victory. He was a leader, commanding the armies of the nation of Aram. He was, the scriptures tell us, a valiant soldier. Read the story of Namann - 2 Kings 5:1-14 - read online Experienced US pastor Ronald 'Dee' Vaughan speaks about the steps he had to take to deal with his depression and how he communicated this to his church in a sermon.