Key Passage – 2 Kings 2 : 19-22
Key Text: “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’” 2 Kings 2:21
The Source. The Fountain-Head. The Origin. The Foundation. The Beginning. The Genesis. These are all words a strategic thinker employs when trying to resolve a problem. But you would be surprised how many people attempt to solve problems and enigmas by dealing with the fruit or symptoms.
So, take the case of this lady called Grace. Grace was grossly overweight and no matter what she tried, she always ended up adding more weight. She is a very nice person, loves people and the Lord, but simply hated herself. She had severe low self-esteem and she often attributed her mood swings to her lack of control over her diet and her excessive weight gains.
Fast forward many years and Grace meets Ed. Ed loved Grace and accepted her the way she was. Never judged her and never once complained about her weight. Grace started feeling better about herself and for the first time, took a deep breath and considered her state without feeling bad. She then had an ‘aha’ moment. She realised she had always felt bad about herself and she traced it to the fact that her dad always told he she was not pretty.
Ed on the other hand said the exact opposite. Ed married her when she was a size 20. Ed just loved Grace. Grace now somehow felt better about herself, could ask God for help, forgive her dad and began a diet that made her lose all the excess weight and she became a slim size 10 dress in less than two years. Grace has never regained the weight and today she is a very happy mother of three beautiful children and totally adores her Ed. The fact is she discovered the root of her problem and the rest is history like they say.
The passage today shows us how God does not deal with symptoms primarily, but He goes to the root of the matter and deals with it. In this powerful story, the men of a certain city came to Elisha, explaining that the location of the city was quite nice, but the water was bad and it caused death and barrenness on the land. Elisha’s response is quite instructive. He asked for salt to be put in a clean bowl, then he took the salt and emptied it at the source of the river that flowed through the city and blessed the source and told the men, the river had been cleansed and it would no longer produce death or barrenness, and the bible says it remains so to this day!
God has the solution to every human problem. God understood that the genesis of man’s problems is sin. God therefore sent Jesus Christ His son, as a sinless man, to redeem sinful man and as a result, whoever believes in Jesus will be miraculously transformed from sinner to saint. This is the mystery of the gospel or the good news of the Kingdom. All you need to have a transformed life is to get fixed at the source. If your nature is sinful, you would always produce sin, despite your most valiant efforts to do right. It is an effort in futility.
What is your problem today? Have you considered the perfect provision of Calvary? The Cross of Jesus Christ, where God supernaturally absorbed and dealt with all man’s problems and provided the permanent antidote and release for mankind. Please hear me. Whatever you may be going through today. Whatever the problem. Jesus fully paid for you to have a solution, but you need to discover the source or foundations of your problem and then apply the power of the cross to that source and watch God perform His healing and restorative work in your life.
Is it that simple? Yes. Absolutely. Just some salt at the source and the water is purified. God’s salt is His Son Jesus. He is the simple solution God provided for man to be free. Without Him, there is no hope of transformation.
What are you waiting for?
Let’s Pray: Father God, today I ask for your help in resolving the problems of my life. I recognise I have been trying to solve my problems by dealing with all the symptoms and I have done a bad job. Father today, I acknowledge your perfect provision for my predicament. I accept Jesus Christ you son into my life and I ask that you deal with my problem at its very roots and foundation. By faith I apply the Salt of God, Jesus to the source of my life’s challenges and by faith I declare I am healed and restored. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Amen.