20 July 2023 - "If you are willing" or "If you can"?

Matthew 8:2-3(NLT) Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man 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.

Mark 9:21-23(ESV) And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

In both cases, a suffering man came to Jesus for help, pleading his case with an ‘if’. Yet, each one's ‘if’ was different, and different was also the reaction of the Lord.

The leper said: "if you are willing, you can". If Jesus was willing, if it was God's will for this man to be healed, if the Lord desired it, this man did not doubt that He could do it. He was sure that what he asked for was not a matter of the Lord's ability but of the Lord's willingness.

It is never a question of whether the Lord is able but is always a question of whether He is willing. The man had faith that God could do it. Thus, he did not doubt what God could do, he knew it was whether God wanted to do it. Faith puts the weight on the will of the Lord and not His ability.

In the case of the boy with an unclean spirit, the father also starts his request with ‘if’, but his if is an “if you can”. His request was not if you are willing but if you can. The first man said - you can; the second man said - if you can. There is a vast difference “if you are willing, you can” versus “if you can”. In the second instance, the man did not focus on the willingness of God to do it, but on God’s ability. Therefore, Jesus rebuked him and said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Thus, if you can believe, then I will.

The man instantly relied on the idea that it is God’s will and that He can do it. Look at the father’s reaction in Mark 9:24-27(ESV) Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

It does not matter what we need from God today; all things are possible with God. Make it your prayer, if you are willing, you can.