I Am Willing

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

I AM WILLING

Mark 1:40-42

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"  42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

NIV

What difference is there between that man who had leprosy and us who have some other type of ailment or disease? There are only two differences that stand out, first, he was physically in the presence of Jesus and, secondly, he begged on his knees and asked if Jesus was willing, He could make him clean. There wasn’t any doubt in his mind whatsoever that Jesus could make him clean, the only question was if Jesus was willing. As we can see Jesus was indeed willing and Jesus did make him clean. So, then as for us, we are not physically in the presence of Jesus and maybe we are not on our knees begging. It is obvious this man really, really wanted Jesus to make him clean. This then begs the question, how much do we want Jesus to heal us? Are we willing to beg on our knees, or is that going too far in our relationship with Jesus? It seems we prefer to be more comfortable than on our knees as well as begging. Our prayers are a little more sedate and are we really that confident that Jesus is willing to make us whole? Do we just go through the motions of asking for prayer from the church, or do we really want Jesus to make us whole?  If we truly are desiring Jesus to heal us, then why don’t we just ask him and expect that which he does, heal those who ask? Maybe it is the doubt issue. Maybe we really don’t believe, first, that he is willing, and second, that he does heal us when we ask, or beg on our knees. It is certain that when Jesus said, “I am willing” He meant it, because he reached out his hand and touched that leper, and said, “Be clean”.  That has to mean that Jesus is willing to make us whole, to heal us from whatever it is that we are ailing from. Then if he is willing, why are we not healed? It has to be because we are not asking or that we have doubts that he is willing to heal us. Let us get rid of any doubt, let us come to him and beg if we have to, and get healed. There is no question about his willingness, for he said, “I am willing”. Just think about that, the I AM is willing.