Is there a significant worry in your life? Have you tried several different possibilities without any success? Are you thinking there is no one who can help? Are you about to give up? Will you turn to the One who can help?
There are times in our lives when we come up against a significant issue. Some are of our own making. Others appear to come out of nowhere. It is the second version that knocks us off our feet. It is the one that baffles us and may leave us desperate.
Often, those second type of issues are health issues. Some may argue the health issue comes from bad choices when we are young. Yet there are many that are not a result of choices. They are a result of a broken world where disease strikes in unexpected places. It seems to be random. We become a victim. We may go through a variety of treatments. We can become exhausted and ready to stop trying. The options of future treatment become grimmer and grimmer, more tiring with little chance of success. They wear on our psyche, emotional health, and physical health.
In today’s passage, we see a woman who was experiencing just such a health issue. She had spent all her money on doctors with no healing. Due to Jewish law, she was not allowed to be in contact with the general public, which meant she couldn’t even shop for groceries. She wasn’t allowed to go to the temple or synagogue to worship. Her family was not allowed to be in contact with her without becoming ceremonially unclean and having to go through a cleansing process and waiting period. Twelve years of isolation had likely exhausted her to the point giving up. But she heard about a man named Jesus who had miraculous power to heal. Her desperation and a small bit of hope led her to touch His clothes. She was immediately healed.
Jesus offers all of us hope. He offers the hope of healing. The healing we need may be mental or physical or spiritual. Do we have the smallest bit of faith that Jesus can heal us? Jesus stands ready to heal, though he is not a genie in a bottle. Go to Jesus in faith and ask Him for healing.
I pray we all turn to Jesus. I pray we dig deep for that small bit of faith in Him. I pray each one of us will trust Jesus, not only in times of desperation, but every day of our lives. Turn to Jesus. Trust Jesus. Turn you troubles over to Him. Reach out to Jesus.
Mark 5:25-28 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 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. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
Marty Pressey 