“And a man with leprosy came to Jesus, imploring Him and kneeling down, and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1:40-42 NASB)
Whether it stems from unexpected changes, uncalled for turmoil, unwanted grief, unannounced cutbacks, or, at least from our emotional readiness, untimely losses, we all experience undesirable anxious days and unrelenting sleepless nights at some time or the other. We are also disturbed, on occasion, when we have to face simultaneous, multiple stressful happenings at the same time, compounded by a multiplicity of emotional stimuli that introduce a time of anxiety and the words of the old church song seem like they were written specifically for us. You know the lyrics, “Stayed awake all night.” But when that happens, don’t forget the rest of the poetic words in the song, because they are specifically for us too, “But it’s all right,” because we can be confident that “Jesus will fix it afterwhile.”
As was the case with the man with leprosy in the opening verses, with your faith apparent, Jesus is willing to intervene, and He is able to change things for the better. Let me state it this way, like I did in our Bible Study classes this past week, “Jesus can touch any messed up situation and clean it up if you let Him touch you!” Somebody needs to be saying right now, “Oh, to be touched by Jesus.” Or perhaps, you need to revisit yet another set of lyrics to be encouraged, “Shackled by a heavy burden, beneath a load of guilt and shame. Then the hand of Jesus touched my and now I am no longer the same. He touched me, oh, He touched me, and oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I know, He touched me and made me whole.”
A little long for a “Monday Short meditation, but if you long to combat your anxious days and sleepless nights, go to Jesus. Hopefully somebody is being helped this morning! Have a great week! Be blessed!
“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, having cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares about you.” (I Peter 5: 6-7 NASB)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King