Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Mark 1:40-41
We aren’t lepers, but we have junk that eats away at us.
Junk that makes us feel like outcasts, like we are unwelcome, like we don’t belong.
But here’s what we do. We put words in Jesus’s mouth.
“This is what you deserve.”
“This is your punishment.”
“Things are never going to get better, never going to change.”
That’s a tragedy.
The reality is, if we have the boldness to approach the King of Kings, look how He responds.
He is moved with compassion.
He stretches out His hand.
He touches us.
He says, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Be healed. Be restored.
He is willing.
Often more willing to answer than we are to ask.
Paula says
We learn so much more from pain than from ease also. I’m not so sure we would see our great need of God’s presence and intervention if it were not for the pain.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights!
Blessings!
Susie Larson says
I once read that lepers had a disorder where the pain receptors were in a sense on disconnect. The lepers looked so full of sores and large areas of bruises and cuts because they could not feel pain. Their feet were ripped up with sores because they were deprived of pain receptors. They didn’t know the limits. So you see our pain receptors are very important to warn us when something is amiss. When something is to sharp, rocky or hot. So the disease itself was a disorder inside the body. The outer body looked bad and people would shun lepers because they believed the bruises, cuts and burns were contagious. Of course that was only a result of outer pressures not the disease. Jesus with his compassion and willingness healed the leper. He is cleansed on the inside and the resulting sores from the inability to feel pain were healed as well. From this we may construe that pain can be our friend to alert us and protect us from the inside and the outside. When we approach our King with boldness, he is willing to restore what is faulty and on disconnect, at the very same time Jesus heals all the bumps and bruises we incur going through life numb and not connected. We need to thank God for this compassion and healing and actually be thankful for our pain receptors as they are signals, an alert signal if you will, to run straight to our Lord and King first and foremost. He is willing. Thanks Paula, for sharing the beautiful meditation. Great reminder to approach God in all things first.
Susie
Paula says
Thanks, Debbie. This post was one that wrote itself. That usually means God is already at work behind the scenes. Blessings
moonriverdreamin says
Thank you, Paula. This is exactly what I needed to hear today. Isn’t it sad that we find it so much easier to believe Satan’s lies than to believe God, Himself?