Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
Hosea 6:1-3 shares of Israel’s desire to return from their misery and repent from their sin.
The Israelites didn’t realize the impact and consequences of their sin, but recognized no matter how far they strayed God was the one who would heal and restore them.
Hosea 6:3 says, “Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”
In verse 3 the Israelites pressed into acknowledging the Lord.
They had the same assurance that you and I can have; just as the sun appears every morning,
God always does too.
Despite how far and wide you or I have strayed, God will authentically respond to you as you seek Him.
Hosea 6:1-3 New King James Version
A Call to Repentance
6 Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will [a]bind us up. 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. 3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
What A Long-Suffering And Gracious God We Have
God rebuked the people of Israel for their apostasy and idolatry, pronouncing a severe judgement upon them and causing Amos the prophet to mourn that His people were destroyed for lack of knowledge of the God of Israel, while He also is bewailing their marked and severe disinterest in the God of their salvation.
And yet the stark and serious warning broke into a comforting song of hope, that one day God would return, revive and restore His erring nation and pour out His blessings upon them like dew onto a parched desert, or as the spring showers falling over a hot and dry and dusty and thirsty land. (Psalm 63:1-2)
God knows that the disobedient Israel will one day return to His open arms of love, for they are all like a flock of straying sheep without a shepherd and the wounds and pain that have been inflicted due to the centuries of idolatry and apostasy will be over, when they come to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, Savior.
And He will bind up their wounds, mend the broken-hearted, with His soothing ointment and He will anoint their nation with the oil of gladness, when they call on the name of the Lord and recognize their God and Savior – for then they will look upon Him Whom they have pierced – whom they have crucified and buried.
His dealings with Israel is a great comfort to all of God’s children, for we know that despite the times when we also wander away from the Lord; getting swept into worldly ways or adopting a careless attitude, His initial response may well be discipline or chastisement, but He is also long-suffering towards us, even when we stray from His path of righteousness and follow our own foolish ways.
What a long-suffering and gracious God we have – for as He has dealt wisely with us, will continue in that wisdom, in grace, truth toward His erring nation.
So will Deal deal with Christians who have wandered far from His outstretched arms of love and truth or when faith wears thin and life seems too much to bear.
No matter how far any of us have strayed, His long standing promises to the church are as sure and praise-worthy, His promises to Israel. His chastening rod may hurt or wound us, but His promise of grace will truly help and heal.
Prayer for Restoration – Our Daily Prayer Unto God
6 1-3 “Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but he’ll heal us. He hit us hard, but he’ll put us right again. In a couple of days we’ll feel better. By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new, Alive and on our feet, fit to face him. We’re ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge. As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival. He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground.”(Hosea 6, The Message)
The exact moment sin reared its impossibly hideous, ugly head, in the form of a snake, in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, brokenness likewise entered the scene.
Undoubtedly, we live in a broken world filled to overflowing of broken systems, overwhelmingly stressful situations, and people who could care less about God.
Sin leaves a vast ripple effect that continues year after year, generation after generation. It affects every individual. You cannot walk through life unscathed.
This is no different for Christians as it is for non-Christians.
Matthew 5:45 says, “…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Just because we are Christians does not and never will mean we are exempt from trials of all degrees and heartaches of every measure known but to God.
Sometimes with and without awareness, we have chosen a destructive path.
Other times, God makes us dwell in darkness (Lamentations 3:4-6 The Message).
4-6 He turned me into a skeleton of skin and bones, then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.
It’s not uncommon to forget God can still restore us when we are in the muck and the mire of a trial – our situations sometimes cloud our view of all God is.
I don’t know what you, the reader of this devotion may be facing today, but I want to remind you the truth is God is still in the business of restoring!
He can still restore a broken relationship, shattered marriage, limp bodies, prodigal child, special needs children, tattered hearts, and scrambled minds.
With frustrated man, frustrated women, frustrated humanity, it is impossible to restore such as those, but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).
Truth is God does not always restore the things we have in mind the way we have that restoration all acceptably socially, culturally, politically defined.
Instead, God, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit restores our peace, joy, hope, and contentment, despite our uncertain situations – regardless of what ways and means our God chooses, He still redeems, repairs, restores, resurrects!
In addition to this, let us please never forget God always has the very final say.
By His Sovereign Will,
By God’s own Authority,
By God’s own Power,
Let it now be our declaration that no matter what threatens our souls,
We have the faith that according to the truths revealed in the Word of God,
When God speaks, Pharaoh relents, the chariots disappear beneath the waves and the storm is compelled to be silent, the seas will part for His Children, the lame are healed, the crippled will walk, the deaf will hear, and the will blind see.
He has the authority over everything because He is the creator of all things.
If we are going through a tough season, keep pouring your heart out to God.
He is not weary of your tears.
He will not grow weary of your tears.
In fact God will collect your tears and reveal them to you at the suitable time.
Psalm 56:8 The Message
8 You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, Each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book.
He knows the words you cannot seem to utter.
He sees the pain no one else can see.
But also please remember to remind yourself God can still do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ever ask, do, or ever imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Psalm 56 The Message
56 1-4 Take my side, God—I’m getting kicked around, stomped on every day. Not a day goes by but somebody beats me up; They make it their duty to beat me up. When I get really afraid I come to you in trust. I’m proud to praise God; fearless now, I trust in God. What can mere mortals do?
5-6 They don’t let up— they smear my reputation and huddle to plot my collapse. They gang up, sneak together through the alleys To take me by surprise, wait their chance to get me.
7 Pay them back in evil! Get angry, God! Down with these people!
8 You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, Each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book.
9 If my enemies run away, turn tail when I yell at them, Then I’ll know that God is on my side.
10-11 I’m proud to praise God, proud to praise God. Fearless now, I trust in God; what can mere mortals do to me?
12-13 God, you did everything you promised, and I’m thanking you with all my heart. You pulled me from the brink of death, my feet from the cliff-edge of doom. Now I stroll at leisure with God in the sunlit fields of life.
Creator, Father, I ask You for a fresh vision for what breakthrough will look like in my life. Help me to pursue healing while I wait for my miracle. Show me how to rest right in the middle of the storm. Help me to enjoy the feast You prepare for me, right in the middle of the raging battlefield. I want my whole life to testify that there’s a God in heaven who knows my name and who will get me safely home. Fill me afresh with the wonder of Your long-suffering love and indomitable power. I am so very determined to win this battle with fear and anxiety. Help me to discern when to rest, when to feast, and how to actively engage my faith as I wait for You to breakthrough. May my life display Your power. Do the impossible in and through me, I pray. Amen.
As we intentionally lift our eyes above the chaos and confusion that surround us, Jesus fills our hearts with hope and restores our faith in His good plan.
And, though it seems like a difficult thing to do, now is a better time than ever to expect a miracle!
In a society driven by social media platforms, one smartphone application after the other to make our lives “easier,” virtual reality and geopolitical reality and global intrigue and political reasoning above all, even as Christians, elevating our expectations and embracing the supernatural reality of God seems a stretch.
Nevertheless, we serve a God who loves to break the rules!
I devote much of my writings on this often because I believe that miracles have the potential not only to impact our lives as individuals, but to display the glory of the Lord in a way that will draw many people to a saving knowledge of Him.
Far from being unique to a particular season in history, demonstrations of divine power have been happening since the dawn of Creation, and many were recorded in the Old Testament, long before our Savior Jesus came to earth.
Fascinatingly, though they remained common when Jesus appeared, they weren’t all happening at His hand.
In fact, there were other rabbis besides Him who were able to invoke a manifestation of the miraculous power of Yahweh.
This is because faith is the fuel of miracles, and it is not reserved for any one person or season in time.
Even today, cultivating a deep and vital confidence in the omnipotence of Almighty God is the beginning of experiencing His wonder.
The earnest expectation He will intervene in our daily lives opens the door to seeing Him do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ever ask for or think!
Faith releases God’s power and our source of faith is the Word of God.
Faith is a work of God and not our own work and therefore releases to God all the impossibilities we strive far too hard to hang on to and (gasp) magnify.
Matthew 9:18-30 Amplified Bible
Miracles of Healing
18 While He was saying these things to them, a ruler (synagogue official) entered [the house] and kneeled down and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just now died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus got up and began to accompany the ruler, with His disciples.
20 Then a woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the [tassel] fringe of His outer robe; 21 for she had been saying to herself, “If I only touch His outer robe, I will be healed.” 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Take courage, daughter; your [personal trust and confident] faith [in Me] has made you well.” And at once the woman was [completely] healed.
23 When Jesus came to the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players [who were professional, hired mourners] and the [grieving] crowd making an uproar, 24 He said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead, but is sleeping.” And they laughed and jeered at Him. 25 But when the crowd had been sent outside, Jesus went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the news about this spread throughout all that district.
27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, screaming loudly, “Have mercy and compassion on us, [a]Son of David (Messiah)!” 28 When He went into the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe [with a deep, abiding trust] that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith [your trust and confidence in My power and My ability to heal] it will be done to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus [b]sternly warned them: “See that no one knows this!”
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
What I would not give to have a day with Jesus as he walked this earth.
They were amazing times! Amazing teachings!
The great thing is that we can take ourselves to those days by simply picking up a Bible reading it and imagining that day as if it were today.
I want to take you back to one of those days as it is being depicted in the Gospel of Matthew 9:18-30.
Here we are given a glimpse of a day in the life of Jesus.
And during this day we hear about three amazing and miraculous healings – a girl, a woman, and two men.
Each is healed from a different illness, and each is healed in a different way.
But with all three, Jesus is directly involved.
The first is a ruler of the synagogue from Capernaum – a leader in the community. He is grief stricken that his twelve-year-old daughter has died.
According to Luke his name was Jairus and he of course has heard Jesus teach – possibly knows him since Jesus had taught many times in Capernaum and certainly in the synagogue.
Jairus had also witnessed many miracles or at least heard of many miracles of Jesus. Most recently a boy from the village of Nain was raised from the dead.
So, he seeks Jesus out – he’s desperate.
He says something revealing his incredible faith: “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”
Later Jesus arrives at the home where all the neighbors and relatives are grieving.
They laugh when Jesus says that she is just sleeping.
They know she is dead and that’s the end.
There is no faith in their hearts.
So, Jesus sends them out, takes her by the hand and calls her to arise.
The second healing involves a very different person – a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve long years.
That was not just irritating but it separated her from society.
She was unclean meaning that she was not allowed near the temple or the synagogue. She must touch no one and no one can touch her.
While Jairus was experiencing the joy of his daughter and life in his home for twelve years, we have all those years that this woman was grieving alone.
No husband, no children, no connection with the fellowship of believers.
It was a very lonely life.
In a moment she sees Jesus passing through the crowd.
She has heard him teach and preach.
This is her chance. And in faith she reaches out from the ground and grabs the tassel from the corner of his robe.
Jesus feels the power released from him to heal her but doesn’t know who it is.
Jesus asks who touched him. She confesses her faith that if she touches only his garment, she will be well. And Jesus affirms: Your faith HAS made you well!
The third healing is that of two blind men.
They too are desperate.
They will follow Jesus wherever he will go.
They see him along the way and follow him from the home of Jairus all the time crying out “Have mercy Son of David!”
This was the special title they give to Jesus of Messiah.
He’s not just a teacher but the Savior of the nation.
They follow and follow all the way to the home where Jesus is staying and finally when inside the house, Jesus confronts their faith:
“Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Hearing their faith, they are healed by his touch.
These are three amazing and wonderful and different stories of healing but what binds them together?
Faith.
Each is an example of the power of faith and teaches us the great treasure that is right in front of us every day.
Do we realize how much faith changes our lives and the world around us?
What do we learn about this great treasure of faith?
1. The first lesson about faith is this: faith is the key that releases the power of God. The opposite is true as well: a lack of faith limits the power of God.
Notice first of all what Jesus tells this woman who has been healed of her flow of blood in verse 22: “Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.””
Also notice what he says to the blind men in verse 29-30: “Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened.”
It was clearly their FAITH which healed them both.
It was also FAITH which the synagogue official had.
All of them had absolute confidence that Jesus not only could but would heal.
From their statements there was no doubt.
And that is the key for the work of God throughout the Gospels.
Somehow God’s power is linked with faith.
In fact, if there is not faith – his hands are bound.
When Jesus was in Nazareth, his hometown, he spoke in the Synagogue, but people rejected him as the Savior.
He was just the hometown boy. And so, his ministry there was also very limited:
Mark 6:5-6 “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief.”
Why are there so few miracles today?
Why don’t we see what happened in the Gospels and in the book of Acts?
Why do we refer to the days of miracles as “Bible times”?
Jesus said John 14:12
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
Why don’t we see that?
Because we live in a time in which there is little faith.
We believe only in that which we can touch, see, and measure.
For the most part, we do not really believe in the power of God as they did.
2. But there is another lesson about faith which is good news for us: we have a source of faith which is the Word of God.
I have read these miraculous stories of healing many many times and I am continually amazed at their faith.
We wonder if those people were just born that way?
Did they have a greater religious inclination?
Were they just more spiritual?
No! They were not one inch any different in their doubts than we are.
But what made them different than others were the fact that they received the teaching of the Word of God.
You see we’re not born with faith.
It’s not a talent or ability that some have, and some don’t although it does seem easier for children to believe than adults.
Faith comes from outside of us. Just as Jesus told the story of the farmer who planted the seeds in the soil and the plants grew up – so God plants in our heart the Word of God which results in steadfast faith that grows and produces fruit.
If you have your Bible turn back with me to Matthew five.
Now if you have a red-letter Bible, you can see that chapter five is all red, so also are chapters six and seven.
This is the sermon on the mount.
Miraculously, Hundreds of people sat and Miraculously listened to Jesus teach.
And miraculously, what happened?
It was planted in their souls! Faith was produced.
Miraculously – They trusted in Christ.
Miraculously – They believed he was Messiah, Lord, miracle worker.
Miraculously – Their hearts were transformed.
And look at the additional MIRACULOUS results…
• A leper kneels before him having faith that Jesus can heal him…and he does (8:2ff)
• A Centurian’s servant healed – from a distance. Greatest faith of all time! (8:5-13)
• Many others (8:16)
So also, with each of these three stories of healings we just read.
Their Miraculous faith didn’t come from nowhere.
It was planted by the Word of God.
They had heard Jesus teach.
They were open to God’s Word, and it produced faith.
Romans 10:17 says: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
It’s no wonder so few are saved and so few are seeing the miraculous working of God today. Because if the Word of God is rejected, faith will NOT be planted!
Today the Word is attacked left and right as just a book, just stories and fables, unreliable, one of many ancient and “too far out of date” irrelevant classics.
And if we throw out the Word, do not receive it, how will God touch our souls?
Beware!
Miraculously return to the Miraculous Word of our Miraculous God, which is able to Miraculously heal your souls, Miraculously plant faith and release the Miraculous power of our Miraculous God today! Expect the Miraculous today!
3. A third lesson about faith is concerning the power of faith – Faith is a work not of man but of God.
Just as we’ve seen that faith comes from the Word of God, so also the power of faith is not in ourselves but in the power of Jesus Christ and it is to him that glory is given.
Look at the two blind men that follow Jesus to his home.
They call him Son of David – in other words, Messiah.
They say the right things and yet what they say needs to match what they believe in their heart.
There are many that say one thing but believe something completely different.
So Jesus tests their faith – “do you believe that I am able to do this?” In other words, “You believe that I am the Messiah, the king. But do you believe I am God? That I have power? And their answer? “YES, we do!” There is no doubt.
But what I desperately want you the reader to see here is that this is the power of JESUS. It’s not just some magical ability or a “virtual reality” of these men.
The miracles that come from faith are God’s power alone.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Salvation or any other miracle that happens through faith is a work of God’s power alone.
It gives no credit to us, or to any other person but gives glory to the Lord of the universe – God Almighty.
4. Fourthly, we can learn the lesson faith releases to God all the impossibilities.
The greatest impossibility is the salvation of a lost soul.
We are born self-centered, self-seeking.
We are born living for the flesh and in the world.
And yet God does a miracle through the Word and touches our hearts.
He creates faith and brings us to confession of sins and faith.
We trust in Christ alone and are totally righteous through Him.
God takes the soul that is long lost and far from God and transforms that life!
Jesus spoke of the impossibility of a rich man being saved is like a camel going through a needle.
And then he said this: “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”” (Matthew 19:26)
“For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)
When Mary was told that as a virgin, she would bear a son the angel told her: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37)
To the father of the boy possessed by demons Jesus told: “All things are possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23)
By some Miracle revelation, do you and I see the common theme here?
A Miraculous Faith is simply releasing all of our burdens, all of our fears, all of our impossibilities into the hands of God because we cannot deal with them.
We cannot do ANYTHING.
We are totally helpless.
But our Miraculous God can do the impossible.
A Miraculous Faith Miraculously lets everything go out of our hands and into his hands because, Miraculously, God can handle it better than we can.
Miraculously, we can trust him.
But the main question concerning any miracle is this: is Jesus being glorified?
Are we lifting ourselves up to our own altars?
Is Father, Son and Goly Spirit the One to be lifted up and praised above all?
Miracles are not self-serving.
They are not just to give us what we want but to give the Lord praise.
My readers, now more than ever, the Lord wants to do a miracle in your life!
If you believe that and own it as truth, your faith will grow larger and deeper, and your awe at the magnificence of His power will propel you to hold onto hope, put down deep roots, cultivate unshakable confidence in His character.
While the world around you has limitations, God’s power is limitless, and He invites you to cling tightly to the truth that nothing is impossible with Him.
When time has run out in the natural and you’ve reached the eleventh hour, His supernatural abundance has only just begun.
No matter how great the task or how large the dream, He is ready, willing, and able to rise to the occasion.
Stretch your tent, expand your capacity to receive, expect to see His glory, and know that He will meet you Miraculously at the point of your earnest desire.
Do we NEED the Lord or are we self-sufficient?
People in these stories couldn’t live without him.
They were desperate.
Are you and I desperate enough to take and receive everything he says to you?
Are we living and ministering with the expectation a miracle is less than one second away from being realized and visualized and genuinely actualized?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Perform miracles in my life Lord to display your awesome power and glory. Despite of the sinner I am, please, increase my faith to trust in you. May my whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless to the end. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, Gloria! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
People today are searching for many different things.
o Some are looking for love
o Some are looking for money
o Some are looking for opportunity
o Some are looking for answers
o Some are looking for fulfillment
o Some are looking for physical and spiritual healing
o Some are looking for a touch of humanity
0 Some are looking for acceptance and belonging
To state the obvious, some are just looking for a miracle – ANY miracle!!
Whatever the reason, they are facing certain situations seemingly beyond their control, beyond their human resources to cope, their only answer is a miracle.
Webster’s defines a “miracle” as: an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God
You may find yourself at a place where you cannot solve your problem on your own, you have tried everything, you have looked everywhere with no success.
Through your struggle you have failed to look to the One who can do what no other can do.
We serve a miracle working God and nothing is beyond His power.
Just think for a moment about some of the miracles that Jesus has performed in the Gospel …
He:
o Turned water into wine
o Healed the Nobleman’s son
o Cast out demons
o Healed Peter’s mother-in-law
o Healed many of the sick in the city
o Cleansed a leper
o Healed the Centurion’s servant
o Healed a paralyzed man
o Healed the man with the withered hand
o Raised the widow’s son
o Spoke unto nature itself and calmed the raging storm.
As we come to our selected text we find one miracle being interrupted by another miracle.
First look to Mark 5:24 “And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him”
We arrive in the midst of the story of Jairus and his sick daughter.
She was 12 years old and at the point of death, in fact she did die.
Jairus went to Jesus for a miracle and that is exactly what happened, Jesus raised the little girl from the dead.
As they are headed to Jairus’ daughter, Jesus is interrupted by the lady that we read about in verses 24-34.
She is described as a “woman with an issue of blood”
She is a lady who is searching for answers …she is searching for a miracle.
Today, I want to devote our time and attention to the subject “Searching for a Miracle”
In this coming encounter between Jesus and this lady we see certain elements of our lives today which may come in the life of one who is searching for a miracle.
Mark 5:25-34Amplified Bible
25 A woman [in the crowd] had [suffered from] a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much [suffering] at the hands of many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but instead had become worse. 27 She had heard [reports] about Jesus, and she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His outer robe. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His clothing, I will get well.” 29 Immediately her flow of blood was dried up; and she felt in her body [and knew without any doubt] that she was healed of her suffering. 30 Immediately Jesus, recognizing in Himself that power had gone out from Him, turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” 31 His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in around You [from all sides], and You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 Still He kept looking around to see the woman who had done it. 33 And the woman, though she was afraid and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 Then He said to her, “Daughter, your faith [your personal trust and confidence in Me] has restored you to health; go in peace and be [permanently] healed from your suffering.”
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Mark 5:24-34 tells a story of a woman who had suffered a tremendous amount.
It had been twelve long years of suffering.
This disease was only getting worse, every dime she had had been spent in an effort to find a cure, there was none.
No physician or amount of medicine of the day was helping or would help.
All hope of any help was beginning to fade, and the future looked bleak.
The Bible does not tell us her name or her back story.
However, from the little information that we are given, we know that she had come to a point in her life where she was beyond desperate and out of options.
This is a story of not only suffering, but faith and courage.
This woman seeks out her last possible miracle of hope from the one whom she has not only heard has healed many but believes them all to be genuine, true.
Her beyond desperate pursuit of the power of Jesus Christ gives us a picture of what it means to be driven forth by our faith, to hang on to God’s faithfulness.
There are three main lessons I wish to highlight from this miraculous story.
To be desperate for God’s help
Our faith is to be rooted in Christ’s power to work out any trial we face
God lovingly welcomes us when we come to Him.
Come to God in Desperate need of Him
Scripture tells us that she had gone through all the options that one had to find a cure to her disease. The account in Mark 5:25-26 says she had
“suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.”
Miracles… we get really skeptical in a really big hurry when we hear that word.
Even Christians roll their eyes when you speak about God working a miracle.
We fail to realize miracles still happen today just as they did in the time of Jesus.
It is one thing for an unbeliever to be skeptical about a miracle, but if you are saved you’ve already experienced the greatest miracle of all time SALVATION!!!
Some people have to reach a devastating situation first before they are willing to open their eyes and see the power of God is their only hope and to see that the power of God unto Salvation can, will work a miracle in their life, even today.
Look at this woman’s situation for a moment:
A. The Sickness – v25a And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood
“An issue of blood” – speaks of hemorrhaging, or bleeding, from some part of the body.
This woman endured a continual flow of blood.
Due to her constant blood loss, she would have been incredibly weak, anemic.
She would have been pale in appearance and would have had no energy at all.
Do you know what it is like to have no energy at all?
It is frustrating and discouraging.
We can assume as a result of her physical ailments, she may have experienced much more than physical weakness but too, depression and discouragement.
B. The Span – v25b “twelve years”
– Not only did she face serious health problems, but she also found no relief.
She had endured this disease for 12 years …over a decade of sickness.
This woman would have been considered severely unclean, even untouchable according to the Law.
This would have resulted in social isolation:
Leviticus 15:25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. 26 Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. 27 And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.
Could you imagine 12 years of continuous unyielding isolation and separation?
What a sad existence.
C. The Suffering – v26a And had suffered many things of many physicians,
She not only suffered the effects of her disease, but she suffered as a result of those whom she has hoped could heal her.
For a long time, this woman had been looking for answer but to no avail.
The Doctors were no help at all; you can read into this verse that they did more harm than good for this woman.
D. The Spending – v26b and had spent all that she had, – The doctors and their useless remedies had not helped her.
But they apparently took her money anyways.
After all of her searching and trying and suffering now she had spent everything she had. Here she is, sick, separated and desperately broke – but still spending!
Yes! I would absolutely say she is in a place of severe desperation!
Oh, but it still gets worse!
Notice:
E. The Ceaseless Spiral – v26c and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
– After 12 years and many doctors, after hoping and repeatedly praying that the next remedy would finally, ultimately be the one to cure, to heal her, things just get worse (as if she needed worse) …literally her life was draining out of her.
During this time period, it was common practice for those who were diagnosed with difficult medical cases, to consult with numerous different doctors.
They would undergo many forms of treatments and the supposed cures were often very abusive and would lead to the patient feeling worse than before.
This woman was so desperate that she not only went to so many different doctors but spent all of her money to find a cure.
The account in Luke 8:43 suggested that the woman could not be helped because her condition was incurable.
She was left feeling hopeless, untouchable and desperate to find an answer.
There was literally nothing that could humanly be done to help her and from a human standpoint, she was out of options.
It was only until she had heard about Jesus coming that she became aware that this would be her last try at a miracle, and final attempt at being made well.
“She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.”
The passage tells us that there was a large crowd of people.
This woman, on the point of physical and spiritual death, who was most likely physically and emotionally exhausted, pushing her unyielding hopelessness and weaknesses aside,
“came” through the crowd of people to “draw near to Him.”
There was a “quiet” “unnoticeable” sense of desperation to get to Jesus because of her quiet faith that only He could bring her the hope that she was looking for.
Her eager attempt to “quietly” push her way through the crowd was a true picture of someone who is in desperate need of Christ.
The true lesson is not in our own ability to bring a solution to the trials we face, it is in our coming to the power of God with a heart which longs and yearns for the power of Salvation in Christ ALONE to come and to enter in and fill the void, of our untouchable measures, seasons of sadness, hardships we all go through.
It is crying out as the Psalmist did in chapter 63:1.
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
This is a cry of desperation and longing for the miraculous power of God.
Furthermore, a desperate heart, beyond desperate for the miraculous power of God, hangs on with every imaginable amount of energy to the truth found in
Psalm 62:8 “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” We know that when we come to God, desperate and open, we can also trust Him fully with our lives and find rest in the one who is our true refuge.
As I mentioned, sometimes folks come to a place of “severe desperation” before they are willing enough to look to the power of Jesus for a miracle.
You may be here reading this devotion and spiritually you are in much the same situation as this woman.
You are suffering desperately with a desperately unclean disease …SIN!
You are looking for help, hope and happiness
You have searched everywhere with no success
You have looked to other people, and they couldn’t help you
You have spent entirely much money trying to buy things that will provide you with happiness …it didn’t work
You have dedicated yourself to your career goals and now you are desperately miserable; without the needed resources, you have a void that cannot be filled.
You thought a new “brand” of relationship might solve your problem
You thought that maybe more material goods, money would make life better
You may be turned to drugs and alcohol, crime, to numb the pain you face.
You have tried it all AND NOTHING IS WORKING!!
YOU ARE MISERABLE AND YOU NEED HELP NOW!
You my friend are at a place of “Severe Desperation” and that may be the best place for you to find the answer that you need!
This woman was at that point in her life too and she sought, found the answer… but how?
That is the next thing I would like for us to see.
Consider:
Our Faith is to be desperately rooted in Christ’s power to work out any trial we face
Verse 28 tells us that her faith was so deeply rooted in Christ’s power to save her from her trial,
“For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well”
II. The Specific Information Involved
– v27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Notice the phrase -“When she had heard of Jesus”
How did she hear of Jesus?
o She didn’t have a Facebook account
o She did not have a Twitter or Tik Tok account
o She didn’t have any Internet or Wi-Fi services
o She did not have ZOOM or Tele-Medicine
o She did not have any Cable television to watch the Health News.
o There was certainly no Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
o There were definitely no Libraries at any National Institutes of Health.
She heard of Jesus because there were some excited people in the area talking about the man who had done so many miracles.
We have already reviewed the miracles of Jesus thus far in the Gospels.
It is possible that she has had a first-hand encounter with one of the people who were healed.
Maybe she had heard from or spoke with someone who witnessed one of the previous miracles.
Maybe she heard from someone who heard from someone who witnessed the miracles by actually and genuinely receiving the miracle.
I can’t prove this, but I would think that instead of any 3rd or 4th hand info, she may have heard an actual 1st hand account …a personal testimony, of someone who was radically changed by the powerful touch of Jesus Christ.
Here is why I believe this – Notice her statement “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” That statement alone shows extreme faith…
Somebody, face to face, soul to soul, shared powerful testimony with this lady!
“It is no secret what God can do”
“What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you”
“With arms wide open, He’ll pardon you”
“It is no secret, what God can do!”
Regardless, we know somebody told her of the healing power of Jesus Christ!
The one and only true source of where our faith can truly be placed, is in Christ.
As a human, the common thing to do when you’re sick, is turn to medicine and make a doctor’s appointment.
We go there expecting a clear answer to why we are feeling sick and a cure to our ailment. There is almost a sense of hope that is placed in the doctor.
I am not the least against modern day medicine at all, I come from a family that is filled with Professional Nurses – Myself, my late Mother, a RN for 40 years.
I have repeatedly witnessed the miracle of modern medicine through the skilled hands of many surgeons as both of my wife’s have been replaced giving her the ability to walk pain free and her arthritic back has been surgically reenforced.
I have the utmost respect for the men and women of our health care services.
The point here is that ultimately despite her diagnosis, this woman’s faith was set on the ONLY one who knows her biological make up better than any doctor.
God is the creator of our human bodies and knows exactly what we need.
This woman recognized despite her best efforts to get help from many doctors, Jesus Christ was the true source that could help her through this difficult trial.
Whenever we are faced with that beyond desperate situation that seems almost impossible to face, we are sometimes driven by our desperation to look to other “material” “worldly” things to bring us a solution, a peace to our circumstance.
This woman’s faith was so strong that notice how in verse 28, she mentions touching his garments, not even Christ himself.
She believed that in Christ’s unlimited power that her words held no doubt that if she “touched” the hem of Christ’s garments, she WOULD be made well.
If she was able to even slightly “… to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to …” the hem of his garments, she WOULDIMMEDIATELY be MADE WELL.
The main lesson here does not lie in the outcome of her faith.
This woman could not foresee the future.
The Bible does not tell us that her faith predicted the future.
What scripture does tell us is that her faith was so strong that she knew her answers lied with the power of Salvation through Jesus Christ ALONE.
The end goal was to turn to Jesus Christ and look to Him for strength regardless of the outcome.
Unfortunately, too many people today are keeping secret what they should be shouting from the housetops!
People need to hear the specific information concerning what Jesus can do in their lives!
When people experience “Severe Desperation”, and they are given the “Specific Information” then there may be a “Supernatural Transformation”
III. The Supernatural Transformation Involved
– v28 … For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
What do we see in verse 29? …A MIRACLE!!!
This woman exhibited great faith in her determination to get to Jesus.
In past miracles the people were healed by the words of Jesus Some were healed when Jesus reached out and touched them.
This woman says, “All I need is to touch a piece of His clothes and I know I will be healed”
Her determination is also seen in the fact that she fought her way through the crowd to get to Jesus.
v30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
There was a great crowd gathered around Jesus.
This weak, frail, sickly and desperate woman fought through the crowd with what little strength she had.
She finally gets to where Jesus is, and risking quite literally everything she had left within her, she reached out and quietly touches “the hem of His garment”
We are told that “immediately the fountain of her blood dried up.”
The miracle that she had been looking for and longing for had happened.
The thing that she had spent so much time, money and effort on was wiped away in an instant.
This woman who was deemed unclean by the law is now clean because of Jesus!
WE CAN RELATE TO THAT!!!!
Listen to what Paul said in
– Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
When it came to the Law, we were helpless and hopeless.
We were deemed unclean!
Just like this woman we did not possess even the minimal ability to solve our problem, but praise God through the touch of Jesus Christ we’ve been healed!!
This woman with her physical disease sought Jesus, when it came to my own spiritual disease Jesus sought me
Who He was and what He did
How He loved and Who He is
Jesus is the miracle to me
What could be more miraculous?
That God Himself would come to us
Jesus is the miracle to me!
God lovingly welcomes His Children
When confronted by, with the fact Jesus had asked who had touched Him, He wasn’t asking because He didn’t know, He was beckoning her to come to Him.
Jesus is all knowing and sovereign, yet He still wants us to come to Him with an open heart and a burdened soul. He wants to hear us pour out our hearts, it is a clear indication that we’ll trust Him when we come with our burdens and joys.
Her approach to Him is described as being fearful and notice how the text says that she “fell down before him and told him the whole truth” (vs 33).
Her admission to touching His garments is so much deeper than the physical.
It also shows us a picture of what a true, repentant sinner looks like when being convicted of their sin.
She makes no excuses, she does not try to run, she comes and surrenders it all to Him.
Surrendering our sin, anxieties and worries about life is not a natural human reaction.
We tend to come kicking and screaming before God, as a last resort because our own attempts have failed.
Regardless of our attitude, when we finally plead for God’s help, His response is always filled with Grace towards His children.
Here he looks at this woman and lovingly says,
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed for your disease”
She is not only cleansed physically but, in that moment, has experienced the miraculous healing power of salvation through Christ ALONE in her life.
You and I too have that same opportunity to come before God and surrender it all to Him.
Like this woman, you and I will desperately try and live life in our own ways, rejecting that there is a God who has been there along.
The God who loves you and paid the penalty for our sin by dying a painful death so that we would not have to.
If we miraculously choose to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the one who has the miraculous answer to life’s struggles and our reason to experience joy. He also miraculously looks at us and in the same way miraculously says;
“Daughter or Son, your faith has made you well”.
What HE did for this woman He can and will do for you!
A woman one day Tried many physicians
But daily grew worse in the bible were told
But when she had heard of this man called Jesus
She found what she needed for her body and soul
She said: If I can just touch the hem of his garment
If I could just touch one part of his robe
I know I’d be healed my sins all forgiven
If I could just touch him I know I’d be whole
One day I sat by the wayside begging
But nobody could help me down life’s weary way
Then my Jesus passed by, and He heard my sad crying
And He Reached down His hands and he saved me that day!
Do you need a special touch from the Lord today?
Are you “searching for a miracle”?
You have a choice; you can “bump into Jesus” like so many in the crowd that day or you can reach out and literally risk everything, touch Him with purpose.
AND MIRACULOUSLY BE MADE WELL AND LIVE!
You can find a miracle today!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Perform miracles in my life Lord to display your power and glory. Increase my faith to trust in you. May my whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless to the end. Through the miracle of salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 