There are problems that come our way in which we have the resources to fix the problem and continue to move on.  Those kind of problems are easy because we don’t need anyone to solve the problem, but we move with the resources we have and solve it.

What about those problems where we have no resources to solve a problem.  What about a physical ailment?  Terminal cancer.  Heart disease.  ALS.  These and others are tough physical problems where the answer to cure the disease is nonexistent or is long in coming.  Have you ever been in a pickle and needed God’s advice or solution to your pickle?   How about a relational problem where you have exhausted your resources to fix the problem and it’s still not fixed?  Your significant other doesn’t get you and seems to be going in the opposite direction of the solution.  You know what would solve the problem, but that solution doesn’t seem to come.  You pray and pray, but no resolution comes.

There was a man whose name was Naaman who had a leprosy and was the commander of the army of Arman.  His boss, the King of Arman, cared for him because he was highly respected and heard of a person in Israel who could potentially heal his commander.  Long story short, Naaman found Elisha whom he had heard who could heal him and began to ask him what he needed to do.  Elisha told him to go to the Jordan river and dip in the river 7 times.  The Jordan river was much dirtier than any of the rivers that Naaman had come from and he went away frustrated by the direction he had been given to get healed.  “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 ‭NIV‬‬

Naaman had in his mind what would be the best plan for solving the problem.  But God had a different plan.  In fact, our plans for solving a problem are often times  different from God’s plan.  Isaiah wrote as he heard the Lord speak to him,  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

On this journey there are going to be difficulties in life that cause us to grind to a halt.  If we truly want God’s direction, it means that we need to be open to unconventional ways of solving a problem.  For His ways are higher than ours.