We think we’re so cool and “with it” with all our advancements, knowledge, and technology. iPhone 12 and Galaxy s21, 4K and 5G, bridges, dams, skyscrapers, robots, and rockets. Alduous Huxley said, “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Despite all the “bling,” what is our greatest need? Nothing is as powerful and progressive as God’s grace. How many mistakes do you make each day, even before lunch? Your greatest need is God’s grace (His forgiveness, mercy, and love), and it is more amazing than any tech you own. It is the best and most powerful tech you can own.
Naaman had it all. He was commander of the army of the king of Syria, a great man with his master and in high favor. By him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor with the backing of four million dollars in gold, a quarter-million dollars in silver, changes of clothing galore. Power, position, self-glory, and praise were his, but all his riches couldn’t buy him healing, acceptance, or grace. He was a foreigner and a leper, doubly damned before God. Where could he find hope?
God provided for Naaman, showing him His marvelous, matchless, infinite grace. A servant girl declared, “Would that my lord were with the prophet Elisha who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman visited Elisha and received further instructions: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” It wasn’t easy for Naaman to receive and obey this, but his staff encouraged him, “It is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? He has actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean.’” So Naaman went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
The Lord became Naaman’s God, not the Syrian gods, and he worshipped and sacrificed to no one else. He declared to Elisha, “I know that there is no other God in all the earth but yours,” and humbled himself to serve Elisha and his God. He asked forgiveness for his sins. A transformed life is amazing, exciting, and worth of praise. God’s grace is more powerful than any technology or device. God’s grace is the power to birth new life and creates a new creature in Christ. He warms cold hearts of stone. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He gives new hopes and desires.
Naaman’s story is your story.
You are Naaman, a foreigner to God, an enemy of God. You have leprosy, unclean, diseased, and stained by sin. No amount of riches, power, position, or tech can save you. You need God’s grace, and there’s nothing you can do to earn or deserve it, only trust that Christ is Lord who died and rose and makes you clean. God shows His grace and cleans and transforms you today and every day, through Jesus’s blood, death, and resurrection. Know and receive His grace and live in it day-by-day. God’s grace is the most powerful tech you can own.