A Very Simple One
Now, don't you see yourselves there? How many men there are who are
waiting for some great thing; waiting for some sudden feeling to
come stealing over them; waiting for some shock to come upon them.
That is not what the Lord wants. There is a man that I have talked
to about his soul for a number of years, and the last time I had a
talk with him, he said:
"Well, the thing hasn't struck me yet."
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I said: "What?"
"Well," says he, "the thing hasn't struck me yet."
"Struck you; what do you mean?"
"Well," said he, "I go to church, and I hear you preach, and I hear
other men preach, but the thing hasn't struck me yet; it strikes
some people, but it hasn't struck me yet."
That was all that I could get out of him. There are a good many men
who reason in that way. They have heard some young converts tell how
light dawned upon them like the flash of a meteor; how they
experienced a new sensation; and so they are waiting for something
of the kind. But you can't find any place in Scripture where you are
told to wait for anything of the kind. You are just to obey what God
tells you to do, and let your feelings take care of themselves. I
can't control my feelings. I can't make myself feel good and bad
when I want to, but I can obey God. God gives me the power. He
doesn't command me to do something and not give me the power to do
it. With the command comes the power.
Now, Naaman could do what the prophet told him; he could go down to
the Jordan, and he could dip seven times; and that is what the Lord
had for him to do; and if we are going to get into the kingdom of
God, right at the threshold of that kingdom we have to learn this
doctrine of obedience, to do whatsoever He tells us.
I can fancy Naaman still reluctant to believe in it, saying, "Why,
if there is such cleansing power in the waters of Jordan, would not
every leper in Israel go down and dip in them, and be healed?"
"Well, but you know," urges the servant, "now that you have come a
hundred and fifty miles, don't you think you had better do what he
tells you? After all, you can but try it. He sends word distinctly,
my lord, that your flesh shall come again as that of a little
child."
Naaman accepts this word in season. His anger is cooling down. He
has got over the first flush of his indignation. He says:
"Well, I think I might as well try it."
That was