A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 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.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering... He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Mark 5: 24b-29, 34
The passage tells us that in spite of all the money this woman spent and all the suffering she endured, she only grew worse and more desperate. But then she heard about a man who could heal every disease with a touch. She had already suffered so many disappointments. Did she dare to believe this Jesus could heal even her?
She did. She believed that Jesus could do what no one else had been able to do for 12 years. She said to herself “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” So, she found out where Jesus would be. She worked her way through the crowd and came up behind Him and reached out her hand in faith and touched Him. Actually, she didn’t even touch Jesus, just his cloak. And that was all it took! Scripture says that her bleeding stopped immediately. She was healed.
Now, many people touched Jesus that day, but she alone touched Him in faith. And that made the difference, because God responds to faith. He has, by His own Divine decree and character, determined that He will honor those who come to Him in faith. Her touch seems to have called the healing forth automatically. How?
The key is that she touched Him in faith. No one else was healed. Surely some of those other people in the crowd who brushed up against Jesus had bad backs and sore knees, but they weren’t healed because though they touched Him they didn’t touch Him in faith.
Did you realize that faith really does matter in the Christian walk? A person can walk the aisle and pray a prayer of salvation but if they don’t pray it in faith, they won’t be saved. A believer can come to church week after week, but if they don’t come with faith, expecting God to do something, asking Him to do something, then it will profit them nothing. You can open your Bible to read it, but if you have no faith, it will only lie lifeless before you.
So when you come to Jesus, when you come to church, when you come into your quiet time alone with God... come with faith. Don’t just brush up against Jesus like the crowds did. Reach out and touch Him in faith! I’m NOT saying that if you have faith all your problems will go away. I AM saying that faith really does matter, it counts for something in the Christian walk.
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