Desparate Faith - Mark 5:25-34
25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
Mark 5:30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
Mark 5:31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask,‘Who touched me?’ ”
Mark 5:32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Have you ever felt like your very life is being sucked right out of you?
Your energy is being drained from more than just your body, but your very soul.
A heavy thought to start such a post, but this was exactly where this woman lived. I have lived there before, many have, many still do, and perhaps you know what I am talking about. It's a life where a happy smile on an aching disposition could no longer be tolerated. I didn't, and you may not have a physical condition as draining as this woman had, but the picture of her life somehow dramatically mirrors many others. Life is running out of you faster than it is being replenished and it is leaving you dry, cold and exhausted. Nothing seems to be enough, nothing satisfies, everything drains.
A woman who had suffered with bleeding for 12 years knew what it was to suffer.
Humanly, our blood is our life. Without warm blood in us and flowing through our bodies, we don't live. Every part of our body needs blood in order for us to live healthy, normal lives.
This woman felt the very cold anguish of her life leaving her empty, it bled out of her and left her soul empty and hopeless.
It wasnt so bad that she had spent every dime she had on doctors who couldn't help her - they can only do so much, right?
She did all she knew to do - she had been under the care of many doctors through her life. She may have started out with the best that money could buy, but eventually they were no better than the "any who would work for so little". But, the worst part was that her 'condition' stole life from her. Her life was consumed by 'the condition'. She was known in the community as the 'poor woman', what a way to live. Sustained pitty takes a bitter toll on the soul. She needed life again.
The woman was so tired, so empty she had hoped that just getting close to Jesus would be good enough for her, perhaps just a brush of his hem would give a poor soul like hers enough to keep going a little longer. She didn't have what it might take to get an audience with him, like Jarius, the synagogue ruler did. She couldn't hope to have a conversation with him, to ask him for anything, she's not important enough for that. But, she has got to have a little hope, that maybe something could rub off from him that would bring her life again. She had heard that he heals people, maybe this is her salvation, maybe her last hope, nothing else worked. She silently reached out.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?!" "I just barely touched his robe as he passed by" A shock wave ran from her finger tips through her body like a rush of life like she had never experienced before. She felt it, and she knew it was real. And more than that, she instantly knew she was healed, even without seeing any proof yet. It wasn't so much that the bleeding had stopped, but that life was pulsing through her again, her soul was coming back to life again, and yea, the bleeding was stopping.
In this extraordinary moment, Jesus too knew something had just happened. Many people had 'brushed him by', but few had such a small mustard seed of desparation to silently reach out to him in faith. One thing Jesus always seems to respond to, no matter how it comes, is the desparate longing of faith. Faith that He alone can...
heal, redeem, restore life, and more than the pulsing blood of life, but the beating life of a soul.
One thing I have found in my life is that trusting in Jesus builds trust in Jesus. Even a small sincere reach of desparate faith is met. Jesus never scoffs at faith but turns and responds in gracious love, and ultimately that is were we long to experience Him. He is the one who said "I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full", a nameless woman experienced it that day, I have experienced it on the days I reach out to him, He restores lives that have been sucked out, reach out to him today, in honest desparate faith, and He alone will bring you life.
Jesus is the one who says:
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
(read also John 15: 5-8)
Mark 5:30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
Mark 5:31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask,‘Who touched me?’ ”
Mark 5:32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Have you ever felt like your very life is being sucked right out of you?
Your energy is being drained from more than just your body, but your very soul.
A heavy thought to start such a post, but this was exactly where this woman lived. I have lived there before, many have, many still do, and perhaps you know what I am talking about. It's a life where a happy smile on an aching disposition could no longer be tolerated. I didn't, and you may not have a physical condition as draining as this woman had, but the picture of her life somehow dramatically mirrors many others. Life is running out of you faster than it is being replenished and it is leaving you dry, cold and exhausted. Nothing seems to be enough, nothing satisfies, everything drains.
A woman who had suffered with bleeding for 12 years knew what it was to suffer.
Humanly, our blood is our life. Without warm blood in us and flowing through our bodies, we don't live. Every part of our body needs blood in order for us to live healthy, normal lives.
This woman felt the very cold anguish of her life leaving her empty, it bled out of her and left her soul empty and hopeless.
It wasnt so bad that she had spent every dime she had on doctors who couldn't help her - they can only do so much, right?
She did all she knew to do - she had been under the care of many doctors through her life. She may have started out with the best that money could buy, but eventually they were no better than the "any who would work for so little". But, the worst part was that her 'condition' stole life from her. Her life was consumed by 'the condition'. She was known in the community as the 'poor woman', what a way to live. Sustained pitty takes a bitter toll on the soul. She needed life again.
The woman was so tired, so empty she had hoped that just getting close to Jesus would be good enough for her, perhaps just a brush of his hem would give a poor soul like hers enough to keep going a little longer. She didn't have what it might take to get an audience with him, like Jarius, the synagogue ruler did. She couldn't hope to have a conversation with him, to ask him for anything, she's not important enough for that. But, she has got to have a little hope, that maybe something could rub off from him that would bring her life again. She had heard that he heals people, maybe this is her salvation, maybe her last hope, nothing else worked. She silently reached out.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?!" "I just barely touched his robe as he passed by" A shock wave ran from her finger tips through her body like a rush of life like she had never experienced before. She felt it, and she knew it was real. And more than that, she instantly knew she was healed, even without seeing any proof yet. It wasn't so much that the bleeding had stopped, but that life was pulsing through her again, her soul was coming back to life again, and yea, the bleeding was stopping.
In this extraordinary moment, Jesus too knew something had just happened. Many people had 'brushed him by', but few had such a small mustard seed of desparation to silently reach out to him in faith. One thing Jesus always seems to respond to, no matter how it comes, is the desparate longing of faith. Faith that He alone can...
heal, redeem, restore life, and more than the pulsing blood of life, but the beating life of a soul.
One thing I have found in my life is that trusting in Jesus builds trust in Jesus. Even a small sincere reach of desparate faith is met. Jesus never scoffs at faith but turns and responds in gracious love, and ultimately that is were we long to experience Him. He is the one who said "I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full", a nameless woman experienced it that day, I have experienced it on the days I reach out to him, He restores lives that have been sucked out, reach out to him today, in honest desparate faith, and He alone will bring you life.
Jesus is the one who says:
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
(read also John 15: 5-8)
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