Willing Hearts

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him, "I am willing," he said. "Be Healed!" (Mark 1:41)

When a leprous man knelt in front of Jesus and said Lord, if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean, Jesus answered, I am willing. Be healed!

There have been so many times in my life when I have knelt before God with seemingly impossible requests and have heard Him answer me in the same way. He has shown me over and over that He is not only able, but willing to work in my life in ways I never could have imagined.

But there have been other times....times when I have faced the realization that God was not willing to answer my request the way I desired.

I have a condition with my heart that causes it to beat too fast at times. There are medical procedures that could possibly heal it, if I would be willing to undergo them. But, so far, I have been unwilling.

Call me crazy, but I don't really want any doctor playing with my heart unless it's absolutely necessary.

On the other hand, however, I have asked God, at times to heal my heart to no avail. He is unwilling it seems to heal my heart physically.

I reason that it is because my heart issue has kept me tied closely to Him in a deeply personal way. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my heart is in His hands. I realize, perhaps more readily than those whose hearts are not slightly broken, that every precious beat is a gift from Him.

And when my heart gets a little out of rhythm, I turn to Him for comfort and peace.

I figure God isn't nearly as concerned with the physical condition of my heart as He is with the spiritual condition of it anyway. After all, we both know that if He was willing, He could heal it physically at any time.

But for God to heal my heart spiritually, I must be willing as well.

And that is what He truly wants of me. A willingness to allow Him access to the spiritual brokenness in my heart as readily as I do the physical brokenness there. He wants me to allow Him access to the spiritual part that needs a healing touch from Him the most.

I can almost hear Him whisper to me, If you are willing, I can heal your heart, and make it clean.... I can almost picture Jesus holding out His hand, waiting only for me to answer, I am willing. Heal my heart!

Though God may not offer us physical healing in every aspect of our lives, He offers us something so much better. He offers a spiritual healing that helps us to become more like Christ. And that is His desire for each of us in this life.

Shortly after Jesus healed the leprous man, scripture tells us the story of a paralyzed man whose friends tore through the roof of the house Jesus was teaching in to allow him access to the Master physician.

Jesus took one look at his broken heart and said to him, My child, your sins are forgiven.

He will say the same to us, if we are willing to bring our inherently wicked human hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) to Him for cleansing. But in order for us to be willing, we must recognize our need for cleansing...our need for repentance. 

We must be willing to take our heart to Him no matter the obstacles that stand in our way.

We must be willing to tear through our pride and forget about what others may think of us.

We must be willing to tear through our shame and understand that He loves us anyway.

We must be willing to tear through our guilt and realize that He is calling us in spite of it.

We must be willing to kneel at the feet of Jesus with broken spirits and open hearts.

The paralyzed man was willing to do just that, but there were those in the crowd who weren't so willing. The religious leaders of the day were unwilling to see their own need for spiritual healing. They were unwilling to see Christ for who He was. And they remained as they were.

In the next story in scripture, we see those same religious leaders, unchanged, and still unwilling, as they question Jesus' decision to call the tax collector Matthew to follow Him in spite of His guilt.

Unable to see the brokenness of their own unclean hearts, they questioned Jesus' association with those they considered to be unclean sinners.

And Jesus answered them, I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.

And I pray, if my physically broken heart helps me to always remember my need for Christ, then Lord, let it remain broken.

Let it remain spiritually broken as well. As often as it needs to be to remind me of my desperate need for Christ's cleansing touch.

I don't want to be like the unchanged religious leaders. Broken. But unwilling to see their own brokenness.

I want to be one who knows my need of the Master physician. One who glimpses the brokenness of my own heart every day. Every moment if that's what it takes to keep me close to God.

I want to be one who see the brokenness of those around me so I'm not quick to judge them, but, rather, to show mercy and grace.

Jesus told the religious leaders to go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.

The sacrifice that God has always desired from His children is broken and repentant hearts brought to Him for a healing that only He can give. A spiritual healing that makes us more like Christ. 

When we truly recognize our own need for His mercy, we will share that mercy with others.

We will become like the friends of the paralyzed men who tore through the ceiling to allow one sinner access to the Master physician.

We will bring others to Christ by the example of our own broken hearts.

We will be able to share with others the truth that we will undoubtedly learn for ourselves along the way -- The Lord is so very near to the brokenhearted (Psalms 34:18).

That is the gift of faith.

(Journey: Mark 1:40-45, 2:1-17; Matthew 8:1-4, 9:1-13; Luke 5:12-32)