The Question is: Is God Willing?

I have heard the following question asked by so many Christian ministers when praying for the sick, "Do you believe that Jesus is able to do this for you?"  I understand that can come up.  Jesus, Himself asked it in scripture.  But I think that was asked of a person who was not a believer but perhaps was becoming one as Jesus ministered to them.  The question for true believers is not, "Can God do it?"  It is, "Will HE do it?"  This is quite a question & is worth serious consideration.  It involves any number of challenging ideas about who God is & what is His will.  This short article should never assume to completely answer those mighty questions.  But there is a touching short story in Mark's Gospel that speaks a comforting & encouraging message to us about the willingness of our Lord.

Mark 1:40-45 tells the story of a leper who came to Jesus for mercy.  The leper is not named.  He must have heard about the miracles Jesus was doing or why would he have approached the Lord with his astonishing request.  Mk.1:40 records his appeal.  "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Jesus answered while touching him (that touching was important) & said, "I am willing, be cleansed."  Of course, healing & cleansing came to that miserable man that day - what a miracle!  The man knew Jesus was able; but the real question in his heart was, "Are You willing?"  On that magnificent day, Jesus was willing & rescued that miserable man.  I say miserable because to be leper in Jesus' day was a sorry state indeed!  

There are several leprosy kinds of leprosy & medical knowledge then was very limited compared to today.  BUT, if you were diagnosed with leprosy in that day, your future was truly bleak!  You were separated from family, friends, & home.  You were likely to starve to death unless your family had mercy on you & brought food to wherever you were, which was usually with other lepers in a separate area where life was dismal.  You hung out with other lepers - cut off from society - with no hope of any change - to die a slow & agonizing death - wasting away with no cure while languishing in deteriorating health.  It was horrific!

But the miracle is multiplied many times over when we consider what Jesus was actually willing to do for that very sick man.  As I was pondering this some years ago, I suddenly saw several things Jesus was willing to do for this un-named leper.  Let me give you the short list AND MAY YOUR FAITH BE ENCOURAGED AS YOU CONSIDER WHAT JESUS IS WILLING TO DO FOR YOU!

First, Jesus was willing to touch him - to lay hands on him.  The Levitical Law forbade such a thing.  After all, lepers were considered unclean.  No self-respecting Jewish religious leader would ever touch a leper.  Besides, leprosy was thought to be highly contagious and some forms of leprosy are just that.  One might contract the disease from incidental contact & receive the same slow death sentence.  Jesus gets involved with those HE is rescuing.  HE is not afraid of their sin or their condition.  His love reaches right to where we are in our misery - thank God!  JESUS IS WILLING to come where we are to help us in our hour of need! Is Jesus able - of course - but we know that if there was a God - HE would be able or HE would not be God!  The point is that HE is willing!!!!! 

Second, Jesus was willing to be moved with compassion (vs.41).  Those words mean that Jesus feels a loving desire to help that is so strong that HE feels it in His gut.  The strict interpretation of being moved with compassion is something like having BOWELS OF MERCY.  This compassion HE feels so strongly that it makes it so that HE has to do something about our case - about our misery & pain - about our plight!  It is amazing that so many of us have to hit 'rock bottom' in order to make a plea to the Lord for a merciful rescue.  We abandon every thought of earning something from God or trying to 'pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps'.  NO - we already know that unless Jesus helps us, we will be destroyed.  Unfortunately, we often come to this humble state only when we have exhausted every other possibility.  It is our fallen human nature that guides us into the folly of coming to Jesus last instead of first.  But, here is the thing, Jesus is willing to help because HE has noticed our plight & His compassion is driving Him to act!  O that we would believe in the great compassions of our Lord!  O that people would believe that God is willing & not just able!!!

Third, Jesus was willing to cleanse His sin.  Leprosy has long been seen by Bible experts & teachers as a symbol for the filth & killing nature of sin.  Sin is simply defined as disobedience against God or unbelief or selfishness!  Our sin is by far the greatest enemy we have against us.  Being cleansed & forgiven is our greatest need without question.  When we are sick, Jesus has compassion on us & wants to heal us.  But even beyond that, Jesus wants us free from our sin, and HE will sacrifice our health in order to meet our greatest need.  I am not saying that God wants to use our illness against us to punish us, but HE will use it in order to bring about the right humility within as well as the right motives for living and the purifying of our faith.  Jesus is willing to forgive, willing to deliver, willing to change our hearts, willing to lift us out of our own sinful habits & thought patterns, as well as heal our bodies.  Jesus is not only able - HE is willing!!!!

Fourth, Jesus was willing to heal His body.  Healing is a mystery & I am always a little leery of someone who claims to understand healing perfectly.  It is not as 'cut and dried' as some would have us think.  And when some ministers cannot the get miracle they have proclaimed, they can blame others & become way over simplified.  They become a bit lethal &  say people don't get healed because they lack faith.  That has certainly happened and we have scriptural examples of that.  But we are often way 'TOO QUICK' in our analysis of another's difficulty in getting the answer they desire.  

Were we in their shoes, we probably would not enjoy being accused of weak, faltering, misplaced, sin filled faith.  It would probably be pretty discouraging to hear that our paltry faith was the cause of our not receiving our miracle healing.  Now I am not only sick, but I am so pathetic that I do not deserve the healing I need from the God that is supposed to be merciful.  This is particularly hard to hear this from some healthy preacher or well meaning Christian.  I PLEAD WITH ALL OF YOU - please stop judging another and walk in their shoes awhile.  Perhaps your compassion & corresponding faith will break-thru for them where your quick & often inaccurate criticism will not.  It's just a thought!  

Anyway, Jesus is willing to heal and does not enjoy His people suffering.  If healing were not in His heart, HE would have healed no one & not left us the multiple promises in His Word that HE was a healing Savior & God!  The question is not whether God is able - of course HE is!  He made the heavens and the earth!  HE sacrificed His only begotten Son for our sakes!  He died and rose from the dead so that we might have life forever!  He promises to answer our prayers when we call!  Nothing is impossible with Jesus!  He is more than able!  The question is whether He is willing or not?  And the answer is found in Mk.1:41, "I am willing, be cleansed."  Thank you Jesus!  We come to a willing God who wants to helps us in our difficult case - who wants us to hope in HIM - who longs for us to trust Him & appeal to Him - who has said, "Call on ME in the day of trouble, and I will hear and answer you."  What a mighty (and willing) Savior we have!!!!

Fifth, Jesus was willing to tell this man about it & show Him that HE cared in a practical way with a specific intervention that radically changed his life & future!  This is critical!  This is why we should be praying & seeking Him!  What good is the idea that God loves us if there is no connection with Him & His love is always distant - for some other life!  Now we are to rejoice in our eternal life, we are to lay up treasures in heaven, we are to not fall in love with the glitter of this world, we are to place our affections above - this is FOR SURE!  

But, that God is VERY CONCERNED about our here & now we must also have no doubt.  That is the purpose for all the promises for answered prayer we have received in scripture.  AND GOD WANTS US TO KNOW that HE is willing to bring life changing, practical, 'right where we live', interventions to show that HE IS ALIVE AND IS WILLING to bring us the help we need.  It is true we will have to trust to His methods, His timing, His reasons, and His ultimate purposes.  All of these can be quite different that we suppose or expect.  But "my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory."  This was not written to fill the air with words.  God meant it when HE inspired Paul to write that great promise.  HE is willing that we should discover His will!  HE wants us to know His will & be convinced!  He is not trying to hide His will from us but reveal it!  Please believe that!  It is only our love of this world (not the rocks, trees, hills, rivers, lakes, etc.) (but the philosophies & thought patterns & the godless ways) that blinds us.  It is our suspicion of God's will rather than our trust in His perfect & loving intentions that keep us in the dark.  God has always wanted to reveal His will & glory to us!  HE is willing, praise GOD!!!

So there we have it.  God is of course able to do for you what you need.  The question is whether or not HE is willing.  The answer is in Mk.1:41.  And it reveals another more important question, "Are we willing to trust Him to follow Him, to allow Him to be God and make the decisions HE should & must in order to perform His good will & help our case?  And I have a promise even for that question, "My people shall be willing in the day of my power."  Thank you Jesus that you are willing & that you can make us willing too.  Be of good cheer my friends - Jesus means to save us to the fullest!