We have moved into the season of Lent. I have decided to give up refined sugar, but replace it with a deeper study and more meaningful time of prayer. I found reading plan leading me through the Gospels during this period of Lent. It has been an eye opening reading thus far. I’ve read the book of Matthew several times, but as I’m reading, it is as if words are leaping off the page. I am enjoying a deeper understanding, an enlightened perspective, if you will, of these words I have read many times before. My cup runneth over! As I am sitting at the table this morning I begin reading Matthew chapter 8. The very beginning of this chapter stopped me in my tracks. Verses 2 – 4 in the New Living Translation say:

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. Then Jesus said to him “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

Do you see it? The man had confidence he would be healed and cleaned, if Jesus was willing to do so. Maybe it didn’t strike  you as it did me. This is what I saw and felt as I read. We come to Jesus broken, in need of healing, in need of being made clean; we lay our neediness before Him, but are we confident He can do what He has told us in His word He can do? He has told us to come to him, He draws us in, draws us close, but it requires us letting go of our preconceived notions of what He can do and how He can heal and restore us. It requires letting go of self and seeking an intimate relationship with Him; trusting His guidance, being led by the Holy Spirit, having confidence in Him and surrendering all. It seems like such a simple thing, but I believe it is our biggest struggle. We are consumed with self, but if you read in an earlier chapter He tells us quit worrying about self, God will provide all we need sufficient for the day ahead. Yet we go on planning and plotting without much thought to the direction Christ is leading us. We read our daily Bible reading and go through our day without checking in to see where we can make adjustments. The more time we get in His word, obey it, seek His will and guidance, we begin to see the small changes. We start checking in, instead of out, we develop confidence in His provision and  have less confidence in our own abilities apart from Him. Our lives slowly begin to resemble the life He has planned. Now to the next part which also blew me away.

As we reach verse 3, Jesus said “Be healed!”. Jesus healed him, and then told him not to tell all the world, but be obedient to what was required of him and in doing so it would be known how his life had been changed. Do you see it here? He didn’t want the guy to go tell all his friends his experience, or the strangers on the street. He wanted him to be obedient to what the Word required of him, and this would be an active testimony to what had changed in his life. Sometimes we spend too much time talking about the changes we feel we need to make, the excitement of the things we see Jesus doing or leading us to do in our lives, when what we need to do is obey and do what is required of us. Spend less time talking about the things we see God guiding us to do, and just do the things. Doing the things is a living testimony of the changes God is making in our lives. It is proof of the healing, it is proof of what His Word already says. I am a talker, so I know how easy it is to talk about things. I am probably the worst person about this very thing, but I am learning little by little; the beauty is not telling people what I see the Lord doing in my life, but doing the things He is telling me to do. Such a simple yet complicated word: obedience. Our lives in Christ are measured not by the good we do, not by how we do things, but by being obedient to His word. When we enter into a love relationship with Jesus, where our natural inclination is to spend time with Him, to talk to Him first, the obedience and the desire to adjust our lives to Him becomes a more natural transformation. This transformation is then seen every time we obey. So may today be the day we quit talking about how we want a deeper relationship with Christ, we quit talking about how we want more meaningful prayer time, we quit talking about the things we see the Lord doing around and in us, and we just surrender to it; we just naturally let it consume us. Let the proof of the transformation in our lives be seen in the everyday activity of being obedient to Him.