Day 16: Desperate for Help
Read: Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48
I hesitated to include this story as one of the devotions and the reason is because I don’t want us to be discouraged by the fact that once again, our person of the day was healed when so many of us know people who struggle with chronic illness and despite our prayers, healing doesn’t come. One thing we know for certain at Emmanuel is that God doesn’t always work that way. Perhaps the most glaring reminder was in 2015 when Tami Jones, our lead pastor’s wife, succumbed to her brain tumor. God certainly healed her, but not in her physical body on this earth. Her healing came in heaven.
But in these verses, we have a great story of desperation and rescue if we can see beyond ourselves and our expectations of what we think God should do.
We only know her as “the bleeding woman.” This woman suffered greatly, spent all she had, yet continued to get worse. She was part of a massive crowd following Jesus that day. Completely desperate and having no other options, she decided if she could just touch his clothes, she would be healed. Don’t rush over that so fast and fail to see how much faith this woman possessed.
She wriggled her way through the crowd until she found herself right behind Jesus, less than an arm’s length away. Stretching out her hand, she touched him. FREE! She knew immediately she was freed from her suffering. She felt it.
So did Jesus. “Who touched me?”
The disciples responded as I would have. What do you mean, who touched you? Do you see the size of this crowd? EVERYONE touched you, Jesus.
“Who touched me?” he asked again.
Knowing she couldn’t escape, she came trembling with fear and fell at his feet. It was me and here is the whole truth. She poured her heart out, nitty gritty details and all.
“Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
So much compassion, empathy and mercy exuded from Jesus. He cares so deeply for people in their suffering and this woman was no exception. In that colossal crowd, Jesus saw this desperate, hopeless woman individually. He saw all of them that way. He sees all of us that way.
The truth in Jesus’ statement to the bleeding woman is the same for all of us. Your faith has healed you. Recognizing our sin and coming to Jesus asking forgiveness for our sin requires faith. That faith heals us and we can go in peace and be freed from our suffering. We will still have trouble (John 16:33) but we are free of our sin debt and there will be no suffering in eternity for those in Christ. As if that’s not enough, we get peace that surpasses all understanding while we go through trouble (Philippians 4:7).
FREE! Salvation is free to us. Jesus paid it all. Who needs to hear that from you today? Don’t just answer the question, take action.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for freeing me from eternal suffering and giving me peace in my everyday life. Give me an open door today to talk to someone about my faith, my healing and the peace I’ve found.