God is Willing and Able
Mark 1:40-42 A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
When you have a problem so big that you can’t fix it, you can’t even put a dent in it, what you need is someone who’s both willing and able to help. Right?
Now it’s great when God blesses you with family and friends. And if you have a loving support network like that, not everyone does, but if you do, then you are seriously, seriously blessed.
But even then, there are times when human help isn’t enough. There are times when the problem is so big, the hurt is so deep, the loss is so profound, that nothing that anyone can say or do, seems to make one iota of difference.
It’s not that they don’t mean well, it’s just that when you’re in that deep, black abyss, human help isn’t enough.
So it’s at that point, that we typically turn to God, because we realise that actually, there’s nowhere else to turn.
And when you’re in that deep, place of hurt and loss and pain, I guess, in theory, you believe that God can make a difference; that He has the power to make a difference. After all, He’s God If He made the universe and everything in it, then without doubt He’s capable of solving our comparatively small problems, right?
But that’s not so much the issue at this point. The theory is not what matters. What matters, is whether God is willing to make a difference in that dark and desperate place.
“Is God willing, as well as able?” That’s the question.
A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” (Mark 1:40)
The leper had absolutely no doubt about Jesus’ ability to do it – “You can make me clean”. What He wasn’t too sure about, was Jesus’ willingness to do it. That leper had precisely the same doubts that you and I have, when we desperately need Jesus to step in to help us in our hour of need. It wasn’t a case of, “Can He?”, but a case of, “Will He?”
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. (Mark 1:41-42)
The thing that the leper wasn’t counting on, was the compassion in Jesus’ heart. Jesus was so deeply moved by this man’s desperate need; His sickness, His social isolation, His poverty, His loneliness – all the consequences that the disease of leprosy had, in the first century. But …
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing.”
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Doesn't matter
God is willing and able to save all people.
God is willing and able to save all people.