Dear Christian friends:

General Dossier, who was freed from the terrorists about two weeks ago after 42 days in captivity (prison) in Italy, said that the prayers of his family, friends and many people all over the world helped to free him. I'm sure that is true. Prayer helps more than we often know. Sometimes we forget to pray or maybe do not know how we should pray. In our text we read about the leper who prayed to Jesus to be free of his terrible sickness. His prayer is a very good prayer. We can learn much from the leper's prayer.

From the leper's prayer we learn that we should pray in humble ways. When the leper came to Jesus he "kneeled, and begged Jesus." He did not come to Jesus with pride and self-righteousness. He came knowing his sinfulness and that he was not worthy. He was a leper which is a very bad sickness. The Jews always compared leprosy with sin. A leper was unclean and could not mix with the other people. The people avoided them and refused to touch them. So the leper knew that he was a sinner before God and man. He came to Jesus with a humble, sorry heart to pray.

Same, we should come before God in prayer with humble heart confessing our sins and that we are not worthy to receive help from God. We are not sick with leprosy, but we have various other sicknesses; deafness, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, heart diseases and others. That shows we are sinners, If we were not sinners we would not be sick and die. The Bible teaches us that sickness and death happens to us because we are sinners. God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree in the center of the garden they would surely die. (Genesis 2:17) And St. Paul writes, "By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, because all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) Therefore, we, like the leper should come to God knowing that we are sinners, and come with a humble heart begging for mercy.

But we should not give up faith and hope. Sometimes when we know that we are sinners we may despair and think that God doesn't want us or that God will punish us. The leper did not give up hope. The leper did not despair, but he had faith in Jesus' love and power.

He said to Jesus, "If You want, You can heal me." (verse 40) The leper had heard how Jesus showed love and mercy to other sick people, and how Jesus helped them. He believed that Jesus was the promised Savior, the Lord God from heaven. He did not doubt Jesus' power to help in the worst trouble. Same, we, like the leper must have faith and hope in Jesus' love and power. We must believe that Jesus loves us although we are sinners, and we must believe that He is the mighty Son of God who can help and save in any trouble. When we pray we must, like the leper pray with faith in Jesus' love and power.

But we must remember to pray according to God's will, like the leper. The leper prayed, "If You want, You can heal me." The leper realized that perhaps Jesus did not want him to become healed. Therefore he prayed, "If You want." The leper put himself under God's will. If Jesus decided, "No, I don't want," he would accept that and continue to believe in Jesus for eternal life in heaven after his death. Same, we must pray according to God's will when we are sick. We should pray, "Lord, You have all power. You can heal my sickness, if You want to. No matter, not my will, but Your will be done. If You want me to stay sick and die, that is fine. I accept that and believe in You and hope to die soon and go to heaven with you.

That is much better anyway. Lord, help me and make strong my faith so I can accept Your will, and give praise to You whether I live or die; whether I am sick or well. Amen."

St. Paul was sick and he prayed three times for Jesus to heal him. But Jesus said, "No," to Paul. Then Jesus explained to him, "My grace is enough for you, because My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) Then Paul gladly accepted that sickness and suffered it, that Jesus can show His power through the weak, sickly man. Perhaps you pray that Jesus heal your deafness and make you hear again. But Jesus says, "No, I want you to stay deaf all your life on earth. In your weakness I will show My power." When a deaf man loves and serves Jesus that gives more praise to Jesus than when a hearing man does it. When a sick man or a handicapped person serves Jesus that gives more praise to Jesus than when a well person does it. Like St. Paul we must pray according to God's will and like the leper say, "If You want, You can heal me; if not that's 0.K.! I will believe in You no matter."

When Jesus answers our prayer we should give praise and thanks to Him like the leper did. (verse 45) Jesus had commanded the leper not to tell anyone how he was healed. (verse 43) Jesus didn't want so much publicity at that time. Jesus didn't want to spend all His time healing the many, many sick people. Jesus chiefly came to preach the Good News of God's Kingdom, which is the Good News of sins forgiven and eternal life in heaven. That's why Jesus told the leper not to tell anyone who had healed him. But the leper was so thankful and happy he could not be silent. He praised Jesus to everyone, telling them that Jesus had healed him. So, we should praise and thank Jesus because He hears and answers our prayers, too. Jesus has not forbidden us to tell others. Jesus has not forbidden us to praise Him in our prayers. We should always close our prayers with praise and thanks to Jesus because we know and believe that He hears and answers every prayer we say to Him.

Yes, we can learn much from this leper how we should pray to Jesus, Remember: Pray with humble heart; pray with faith in Jesus' love and power; pray according to God's will; close your prayer with praise and thanks.

Amen.