By David ReayFriday 14 Aug 2020LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. “Lord,” he said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.”
Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared. (NLT)
Some of us have heard teaching that says if we pray for healing, those words “if it be your will” mean no healing will result. It seems God shakes his head sadly and advises us to come back when we have more faith. That little word “if” is fatal to our prayer.
How good it is that Jesus hasn’t read those books or heeded such harmful teaching! He takes what faith we have rather than demanding more and more of it. The question of why he does not always step in and heal is a complex one, but seeing it simply as a lack of faith on our part, or careless use of words on our part, is to load us with a burden of guilt and failure that is anything but healing.
We can be urged to follow a certain formula in order to get our prayers answered. Use a set of words, avoid certain phrases, and observe a correct sequence. It can become so complicated that we focus more on the procedure than the God to whom our prayers are directed.
The image we are to have of the one to whom we pray for healing is not one of a stern eyed deity who is checking out our faith formula. Rather it is one who has compassion on us. One who, like Jesus, is ready to reach out and touch us, “unclean” as we are.
Blessings
David