Question: Why should I read the scriptures if the book is boring? Why should I pray? Nothing ever happens. Why should I go to Church if I don’t get anything out of it? And lastly, why should I serve if no one cares if I do?

Well, I don’t think I have a perfect answer, but in the Old Testament there’s a story about a man named Naaman, the Syrian. I think there’s an answer in this story.

Naaman was not a Jew. Naaman was a gentile. He was not a worshipper of Jehovah either. He was a pagan idol-worshipper. As a leader of Syria’s army, Naaman had delivered his nation out of the hands of the Assyrians. He was considered a great and a good man.

But, Naaman was a leper. And in that day and time, leprosy was called the living death. There was no known cure – that is until one day when a little Israelite girl in Naaman’s house who served Naaman’s wife made the following comment:

“Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! For he would recover him of his leprosy.” (2 Kings 5:3)

Well, Naaman heard about this. With a glimmering shred of a last hope, and a small fortune, Naaman sets out for Israel, the prophet, and a cure. Riding in the horse drawn chariot that is the symbol of his power and position, Naaman comes to the door of Elisha’s house. From within, the prophet sends a messenger. Now get this – he sends a messenger out to Naaman telling him to dip himself seven times in the Jordan River.

Indignant and outraged that the prophet wouldn’t even so much as come out to meet him, Naaman turns away and starts for home in a huff. Well, it just so happened that the way home took him relatively near the Jordan River.

As he passes near the Jordan, one of Naaman’s servants approaches him and says with respect, “… My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean?” (2 Kings 5:13)

Now the way I read that is, “Come on, man, all you have to do is wash. What do you got to lose?”

Now this was an eternally critical moment for Naaman. Had he shrugged off the counsel of his servant, ignored the prophet, there would likely have been no miracle on Naaman’s behalf, and we would not know of the man today. But Naaman made a decision.

He steps into the water, – and get this – he lowers not only his body, but his haughty pride as well. Seven times he dips his body into that filthy water. As he rises the seventh time, the scripture records, “He was clean.” The leprosy was gone.

Now as then, the Lord’s messengers ask us to do some – well, they ask us to do some things that make us look pretty silly in the eyes of the world, all the while extending marvelous promises to us and to our families if we will be obedient.

Now, I have a question for you: Did Naaman’s leprosy vanish on the first washing? – the second? – the third? – the sixth? No – no, it was the seventh time.

My dear friends, I wonder if we realize that our greatest test in this life is probably not going to be the great challenge that comes once. But rather, our greatest test in this life is probably going to be the little side journeys of time and obedience, like going to Church, reading the scriptures daily and praying daily, that in and of themselves may seem inconsequential. Yet – yet eventually they will add up to seven, and a miracle!