I wanna share some thoughts on brilliant and sometimes subtle ways God tries to help you.  A couple weeks ago we had a sermon on the cleansing of Naaman.  He was highly successful and regarded military commander for king Aram of Damascus.    No matter how successful and fierce on the battlefield Naaman was there was one enemy he could not defeat or subdue.   Naaman had leprosy.  A highly contagious skin disease that corrupts the whole body.   It was a death sentence, even if it didn't kill you.  Catching it meant immediate isolation and banishment.   Here is where God enters the picture to save the day.  It just so happens (there really are no such things as coincidences)  that Naaman's wife had a Jewish female servant who upon hearing of his plight told her mistress of the prophet Elisha in Samaria who could cure Naaman of this dreaded disease.  He took the servant's suggestion to the King who enthusiastically approved.  He provided Naaman with a letter for the King of Israel to grease the skids, along with a nice haul of silver and gold.   

Upon arrival in Israel and after the presenting the letter to the king of Israel things didn't at first go as planned.  The king of Israel had a bout bout of paranoia (a common ailment of kings and queens) and assumed this was some plot to do him in.   Elisha heard about the Kings distress and sent word not to worry and send Naaman to him.   That's when a normal human frailty kicked in.  Pride can be a nasty little destructive thing.   Naaman was about to have his prideful moment.   Luckily for him it did not lead to his fall.   

What initiated his pride (and pride's good buddy anger) to kick in was the fact that upon arrival Elisha refused to come out and meet him.  I can only assume that Elisha was told by God to put him to the test, and also the method of healing him.  It was a test to see just how bad he wanted to be healed, and to see if he would swallow the humble spoon full of preverbal medicine for healing.   Elisha sent his servant out to meet Naaman with this simple instruction; go dip yourself 7 times in the Jordan river you'll be good as new.   Now Naaman had truly had his fill.  First the great prophet refused to come out and meet him personally.  He was sure the Prophet would come and out and make a grand jester of calling on his God and presto he'd be healed.   Then to add insult to injury he's told to go dip 7 times in the dirty Jordan river.  After these instructions from the Prophet's underling Naaman said quote "Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?"  

Just as he was about to storm off and head home his servants were able to talk some sense into him before he blew it and made the last and biggest mistake of his life.   They appealed to his sense of reason, telling him that had the Prophet himself had come out and asked him to do something great and extraordinary would he not have surely did it?   Why not do as your told, what did you have to lose?  So Naaman knowing he's under a likely death sentence and accepting their logic of having nothing to lose went to the Jordan.  He dipped once, twice... and after the seventh time came out skin as clean and pure as a newborns.   God's ways are so above our ways, His thoughts so far above our own.  Using the simple to confound the wise, the weak to better the strong.  He knew what kind of potential Naaman had, but he had to break him down first, than build him back up.  The bible doesn't say but I wonder how many people Naaman brought to the Lord?  I'm looking forward to meeting Naaman in heaven and finding out.   

Here's a good sermon by Alistair Begg on this subject:

https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/naamans-cure/