One word.  Five minutes.  The prompt this week: willing.  Thank you, Lisa-Jo Baker, for encouraging me to be brave and to simply write.

Timer started…ready…set…go!

Willing

I have realized lately that I have been approaching the LORD with lots of things I am willing to do.  My works are many.

I have been making plans and running wild with them.  They are all good plans, but are they God’s plans?

As I have been identifying idols and my source of pride in my Bible study time, I have realized that I have been approaching the throne room with my focus on myself.

“Lord, I am willing to…”

Then I reminded of the simple prayer of the leper. “LORD, if you are willing…”  (Luke 5:12-16)

The difference is that the leper was aware of his great need.  He was at the end of him self, and he realized that there was nothing that he could offer.

His request was to be made clean.  If Christ was willing to restore his health, then the man could live in relationship with his community again.  Christ not only restored his health, but restored his soul.  The man could live in relationship with God.

What are you willing to do for God?  Nothing that you offer Him can compare to what He is willing to offer you.

You offer works.

He offers…Relationship…Restoration…Redemption.

“And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. “(Acts 17:25)

He is simply waiting for us to change our prayer from “LORD, I am willing…” to “LORD if you are willing”.

He wants us to be aware of our great need not His.  He wants us to come to Him with empty arms and empty hearts….desperate for Him.

STOP