If You Are Willing

Mark 1:40-45 (NKJV) 
⁴⁰  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."
⁴¹  Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out Hishand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."
⁴²  As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
⁴³  And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once,
⁴⁴  and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
⁴⁵  However, he went out and began to proclaim itfreely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.

A very simple prayer from a desperate man. A leper. An outcast, reject, undesirable, unwanted, unwelcome. He mustered the courage to approach Jesus. That is exactly what it was. Raw courage. To brave the stares and whispers. He set his face like flint to get to Jesus. When he arrived he offered a simple prayer. "If You are willing You can make me clean." Nine words. Nine words moved by need and faith. Nine fervent effective words of prayer.

"If You are willing. "What that means is if You delight, are pleased, desire, are inclined. That is where all prayer should start. Are we praying the will of God? It is most important. Our prayers will be answered if we pray for the things He delights to do for us, blessings He desires for us, is pleased to do for us, and is inclined to make happen. Many times I pray this same prayer. Just a simple prayer.

"You can make me." The word can means able, powerful. The leper's prayer saturated in faith declared the power of God. He knew Jesus was able. He had the power to heal him. Do we pray like that? Do we pray believing He is able to do whatever we need? Do we believe Jesus is powerful enough to help in our time of need is no matter what the need might be? If we do not believe these things we are not really praying. We are just mouthing words akin to wishing upon a shooting star or breaking a wishbone.

"Clean." That means pure. The leper wanted to be clean. Healed. Made whole. Pure. So do millions who stumble in their sins and sorrows. Can Jesus make people pure? He does it all the time. He removes sin. He takes away shame and guilt replacing them with forgiveness and redemption through His death on the cross and resurrection. He still has the power to heal physically and emotionally. He still has the ability to transform lives.

When He does this people get to talking. The fame of Jesus spreads. This is a beautiful thing. We need more praying like the leper and more testimonies like his that impacts a whole region. May it be so in Your name Jesus if You are willing.