When you talk to people about religion, many times the words you here are, “Well I think.”

Before you find yourself saying this, you might want to see what God has to say about man’s thoughts compared to his. From the beginning of time, we see that someone has always wanted to change what God says. In the Garden of Eden, God had instructed man not to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest they die (Genesis 3:3).

When Satan approached Eve, he told her that was not the truth, and she believed him. This belief led to man being removed from the Garden of Eden and death entering the world.

Many other instances show that man many times has not been satisfied with “God’s way.”

In 2 Kings 5, there is an account of a man who did not want to follow “God’s way,” Naaman the captain of the host of the Syrian army. He suffered from the disease of leprosy. He was told by one of his wife’s servants about a prophet in Israel who could help him with his cure. The king of Syria sent letters with Naaman to the king of Israel, stating that the king was to cure Naaman of his leprosy.

The king of Israel was distraught. How could he cure anyone of such a disease. When Elisha, the prophet, heard of the letter, he sent word to the king, asking why he was upset and suggesting he send the man to him, and he would show him there was a prophet in Israel.

The account then tells how Naaman arrived at the house of the prophet, and instead of a great welcome for this mighty man; a messenger comes out to talk to the man. Notice what the message for Naaman was: “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean” (2 Kings 5:10). Naaman was furious. What kind of treatment was this for such a one as he? This was not what he had thought should happen.

The Bible records, “But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage” (2 Kings 5:11,12).

He was willing to turn his back on the cure for his disease because things were not as he thought they should be. Fortunately, one of his servants made him stop and think about what he was doing. He decided to follow “God’s way” and was healed.

God has given man the Bible to read and study in order to know what man is to do for his salvation. Just as Naaman needed to follow exactly what God said, so must man today.