If You Are Willing, Stretch Out Your Hand

The more we chase after God and desire to be in His presence, the more we will come to the realization that sin is ever before us. We are conceived in it, shaped in it, and ultimately, our posture before the Lord brings us face to face with the bitter yet sweet reality that sin is something that can only be fought and overcome through God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

My sin manifested in pornography, a long, hard journey of lust, anger, temptation, rage, confusion, loneliness, and sadness. Although this devotional will focus primarily on the hand of God, it is essential to recognize the hand of the enemy at the root of our starting point: turning away from believing in God.

What I uncovered in my deliverance from sexual sin is that my sin wasn’t just the seed planted outwardly; deep, deep, down inside, it was a lack of trust in God. Not just who He was, but what His Word said. None of it felt real; it wasn’t possible, it could not be true. Therefore, He was blamed. Could He overcome my doubts, do away with my shame, defend my character, restore my love, never abandon me, and stand true to His Word?

All of this was wrapped up in a sensual misbelief that God was not enough to satisfy me.

But God, how He uses the very thing that tries to turn away to turn toward us.

There is a recent story that I read in the Bible where all of these emotions and feelings came rushing back. Now with truth not just for me but all you who are reading. God is willing.

Let’s look at Mark 1:40-41. It reads: 40 “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

To unpack the story, a man comes to Jesus with a disease. In the Bible, a leper was someone suffering from leprosy. They were often rejected or shunned by others because they were considered unclean. This kind of disease had made him a walking dead man, an outcast, untouchable, and undesirable.

Jesus was leaving the town, the leper came to Him, knelt before Him, and asked a question: “If You are willing, you can make me clean.”

As I read these verses sitting at my desk, I began to cry out with high emotions and tears flowing. I said, “Jesus, if You are willing, you can make me clean.” At that moment, my heart was burdened for something else in my life. I felt like this was the same question I had asked the Lord for years: Are You willing to stretch out Your hand to heal me completely?

This time, it felt real. I was in need of the presence of God to perform the miraculous. At the same time, I was almost mimicking the small trust that was in the leper’s heart. It’s not about whether He is willing, but about His sovereign will. If he is truly willing, it is still left up to God.

However, Jesus, in His compassion, not only turns toward the leper and addresses his plea, posed as a question, but also performs the miraculous; He touches the man. His words, while mighty and powerful in that moment, are: “I am willing, be made clean.” When Jesus touched him, it was a significant act.

This is similar to the story of the woman with the issue of blood, when she touched Jesus’ garment. God’s presence, through that touch, transformed her situation. He wants to do the same for us, to not only address the root of sin but make us completely whole.

God doesn’t just heal the outside; He wants to plant new seeds of life, purpose, hope, joy, and salvation into every fiber of our being. It may feel like you’ve been suffering for years, but one touch from Jesus can change everything in an instant. He will indeed stretch His hand to all those in need.

My life is living proof that God still heals, delivers from sin, washes us clean, and imparts His Spirit within us, transforming us each day into Jesus’ image, from glory to glory.

Like the story of the leper, Jesus is willing and able to cleanse you. Stretch out your hand and heart to ask Him for His touch.

Prayer:

God, we thank you that you are a God of second chances. No matter how far we go, you chase us down. You want to know us intimately, and you fill us up with more of you. You give us a heart of flesh in exchange for stone, and you make us clean not just outwardly but inwardly. Thank you for your love and grace, which are sufficient to cover a multitude of sins. You don’t just love us; you are love. Your all-encompassing love will carry us into a new season where we can trust that you care for us deeply more than we will ever know. To everyone reading this, I pray that they would experience your love in a new way. I pray you would fill them with hope to endure and to cling to you as a Father, for you are the God who heals, does the miraculous, and never gets tired of loving us. May your love draw us to repentance so that we may walk anew and never be the same with each touch and word we receive from you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.