In YOUR Will

Luke 5:12: "In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. 'Lord,' he said, 'if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.'"

I was reading this in the morning. And the words just jumped out at me. Many times we want things from God and we pray and ask of Him, in a sense, demanding what we believe should be ours. The leper in the verse, had an advanced case of leprosy and I venture to guess he was in his dying months. When he saw Jesus, he bowed his face to the ground, he begged, and he said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean."

I see a few things just from his actions and his plea.
He bowed, begging. To beg someone, is not just to ask. It’s knowing that you can’t do it. That you need someone who is more powerful or more able then you are. It’s to put yourself lower. Which is also where the bowing comes into play. He bowed his face to the ground. I know he’s sincere and I know he has totally humbled himself. We should ask expecting that God will answer, but remember that we are asking the all-powerful, mighty God. We are nothing before Him. We need to humbly ask of Him.

“Lord, if you are willing.” I’m sure the leper knows God can heal. God had previously done so much for others and the news had spread all over Isreal! The point is, he asked if Jesus was willing. He was ready to accept no as the answer. Many times when God says no to our prayers, we get angry. Again, who are we to demand something from God? If the leper were not healed, he would die shortly. He knew this, yet, if it had been the Lord's will, he was willing to submit. Submission is hard, especially when it’s to something we don’t agree with or like. It is still very important. We also need to humbly ask in God's will and then submit to His decision.

“Heal me and make me clean.” We are to ask humbly, remembering that we don’t deserve it, but yet, ask boldly, knowing that God answers prayers. I know it’s rather contradictory, but let me try to wrap it all into a nice little box. There are a lot of times, we ask and are super wishy-washy about it. When we are afraid of praying specifically, it's like we are letting God answer generally just in case God can’t answer us. There’s unbelief in the prayer. Snowballing from the first 2 points, we know we should be asking remembering who we are and who we’re asking, remain humble, and ask in God’s will, submitting to the decisions He makes for us. But we can be bold when asking in His name (which is Jesus), in God’s will! Look up Assurance of answered prayer, John 16:24.

- Matt