Every Need Supplied

September 17

“When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean, " Matthew 8:1, 2.

We can assume that if there were great multitudes following Jesus it was because great miracles had been done in their midst, for the Lord, as we are told in Matthew 9:35, “…went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Our introductory verse makes it clear that the leper approached Christ with the right spirit—it says he worshiped Him. There was a boldness involved in his drawing near to the Lord, for anyone who had leprosy had to declare himself unclean and avoid contact with other people.

With the masses thronging Jesus, the leper defied protocol and went directly to the One who he affirmed had the power to deliver him from the horror of his affliction. Because of his presumption—based upon his observation that none were turned away, based upon the consistency of healing and deliverance that was granted to others, and based upon his own desperate need, the leper approached the Lord and humbly beseeched His mercy.

All he had seen confirmed to him that Jesus was willing to meet every need with which He was approached, but the leper did not presume upon His willingness to heal him! Instead, he approached the Holy One with the words, “If You will…”

We should be mindful of the leper’s strategy when we approach the Christ with our own needs. We have the evidence of the Word itself that affirms the truth of Matthew 15:30, “Great crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at His feet; and He healed them.”

If He healed all who were brought to Him when He walked among us, it is not presumptuous for us to believe He will heal us today, for the Bible tells us that “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8.

Mark 16:18 tells us further that those who believe shall, “….lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” If we pray for healing, for ourselves or for others, we are not claiming a contrivance of our own imagination but we are standing on the word of promise. Romans 4:21 states emphatically, “…what He has promised, He is able to perform.”

Yet, in our confidence based upon His own word in the matter, we should not presume to approach Him with our need based upon our right to do so; rather, we must be worshipful in our supplication, knowing that He is our Holy God and we are mere men.

If we come to Him in humble surrender to His will, we can confidently claim the help we seek as we are encouraged to do in Hebrews 4:16 which says, “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

As the leper approached boldly, so may we, for we know that Heaven’s door is always open to His people and His ear is ever attuned to the voice of their supplication. With the confidence born of knowing we are loved, let us then resolve that we shall not be denied, for in His time, in His way, our every need shall be supplied.