“When (Jesus) was come down from the mountain (after the Sermon on the Mount) great multitudes followed Him. 2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. 3. And Jesus put forth His hand, touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy was healed.” (I added the parentheses.)
There is a lot to write about in this text, but I want to focus on the one thing that really caught my attention, i.e., the man asked Jesus if He was willing, and Jesus answered “I will.” At that point Jesus touched the leper and he was healed of leprosy. This text told us something about Jesus that we need to know – He is willing. This is a fact about Jesus that reaches out across to the centuries from this incident to our lives. We need to get in touch with Jesus’s willingness in our lives. Here are my thoughts on the subject: He Will! Jesus is not reluctant to help in our lives. When we pray, we need to remember that we are not trying to overcome Jesus’ reluctance, but that we are joining Him in His willingness. He is always ready to do what is best for us. Sometime what we see as the reluctance of Jesus, is that He is really teaching us what we really need. I believe in “name it and claim it” with this caveat: We need to claim the answer that Jesus gives whether what He gives is not specifically what we asked of Him. We just need to trust Jesus that in His willingness, He is doing always what is best for our lives. Obviously, the leper needed to be healed at that instance. We can believe that is what was best for Him. I have seen both sides of His willingness in my own life. Many, many times, Jesus has given me specifically what I have asked for. At other times, I just had to accept that Jesus knew what was best for me. Here is a quote from Alan Redpath that has served as an anchor for me in my own bouts with illness: “There is nothing, no circumstances, no trouble, no testing that can ever touch me until it has come past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose.” The willingness of Jesus always comes with a purpose. He Can! We should never doubt that Jesus can do what is asked of Him. The power of Jesus that we saw in the stilling of the storm, turning water into wine, feeding over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, plus healings like the one in our text, is still there for us. We just need faith in Jesus that He can do the impossible if the situation calls for it. There is no circumstance in this fallen world that Jesus is not aware of and is not working His purpose in people’s lives. Man, this is hard for us to accept today. Because of everything going on, we think that Jesus is standing hopelessly by, not able to do anything. We need to always remember that we live in a fallen world since the Garden of Eden. Please do not allow Satan to convince you that Jesus is powerless. Jesus’ promise that He will always be with us in the good and the bad that happens in our lives still stands. He still walks with us “through the valley of the shadow of death.” He Has! I want to close with a reminder of what Jesus has already willingly done on our behalf. He gave Himself as a willing sacrifice for our sins. We need to accept what Jesus has done for us and that He will and can make our lives better by doing what is best for us.. Join Jesus in His willingness. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Margaret M Jones
4/7/2016 09:37:20 am
"Ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen and keep you. He is WILLING to help you. He will carry you through"
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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