Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Mark 5:25-29 -- On Touching Christ

"And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague."
Mark 5:25-29


I love this story. Although this woman had a physical ailment, and the woman taken in adultery had a spiritual ailment, I think in a lot of ways they teach the same thing. These women show us that God can help us when no one else can. You can look to the law, you can look to the doctors, you can talk to all the experts... and when none of it works, Christ will still heal us.
Imagine this woman's faith... it says that she spent everything she had on doctors.... and they couldn't make it better, but it actually was getting worse. For twelve *years* she suffered through all of this... and had *every* reason to doubt that anything could be done... and yet, she believed.  And she came to Christ, and initiated the healing by touching his clothing. Powerful faith, and a powerful woman, to draw upon Christ's power like that. Thousands of people touched him that day... but her touch was different.
I think it is the same in our lives. Christ is there; we have access to him. And zillions of people are praying to him, touching him in many ways... but we can do more than just make contact. We can be healed of our ailments... physical, mental, spiritual... if we draw upon the power that he offers us. There are many ailments in our lives, many things that we can't figure out... and God has the power to teach us and to heal us, if we will only draw upon his power, we can use it to become whole in our own lives... and to make a positive difference in the lives of the people around us.
So many of us suffer as this woman did... maybe not for exactly the same thing, or for exactly the same amount of time,… but we are all trying to get healing from someplace. We look to whatever "experts" there are, or sometimes we think that we can heal ourselves, but we continue to suffer. God offers peace, and wholeness. He cures physical and mental illnesses, addictions, mental blocks, and every sort of spiritual dilemma that we can be faced with. We can ask God for the strength and the power to overcome the obstacles in our lives.
The answers might not always come the way we want them, but if we persist in our faith as this woman did, and go to God with our problems… he has promised us that our weaknesses will be made strengths. Today, let's take him up on the offer.

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