There is a text from Luke that has always inspired me. Here is it:
"12 Once when he was in one of the cities near the Lake of Gennesaret, a man covered with a skin disease was there. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ 13 Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I am willing. Be made clean.’ Immediately the skin disease left him. 14 And he ordered him to tell no one. ‘But go, show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’ 15 But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds were gathering to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16 Meanwhile, he would slip away to deserted places and pray” Luke 5:12-16.
Many people in my life have come to me for prayers for healing. In their request stands the presumptive knowledge that God can certainly heal. Such an approach and understanding is present in the text above when the leper bows his face to the ground when he sees Jesus and begs Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Bowing your face to the ground and begging Jesus shows great faith in Jesus, specifically in His healing power, and it also shows a humility that is so envious. Faith and humility go together because they reflect a God-graced approach to Jesus’ healing power.
Of course Jesus can heal! That’s not in question! This is clear when the leper says to Jesus: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
The leper knows that Jesus merely must will to heal this man. That’s it! Does healing this man in any way fit into the plan of God for this leper’s life?
So take time today and pray for any healing you need in your life — for yourself or someone else. Pray these words: “Lord, if You will, please heal ________________________!” Pray, then trust and wait!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” 1 John 5:14-15.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” John 15:7.
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” James 4:3.
“Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear” Isaiah 65:24.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” John 15:16.
Comments