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SCRIPTURE: Mark 5:25-34 “When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said ‘If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.’ (v27-28 NKJV)
OBSERVATION: The woman in this well known and preached about story struggled for answers to her chronic problem for over a decade. We read that she sought help but “had suffered many things from many physicians and was acutally worse.” (v26) Luke’s account of the story says that she “had spent all her livliehood on physicians.” (Luke 8:43) It would appear that all she had left was a faith that this man named Jesus who was healing people, could heal her.
APPLICATION: There are somethings in life that we can’t seem to find answers to, things we can’t shake off. The breakthrough seems to be teasing us, callling us to continue to believe, but never acheiving it. You may have a health issue in your life that has been limiting you for a few months, years, even decades. You might have tried all the worldy offerings to resolve your issue. You might have tried everything and even your faith is waning.
The woman in this story is attributed to have been healed by her encounter with Jesus because she touched him. I want to suggest to you that Jesus response to being touched, and feeling that something had gone from within him actually goes deeper than the natural contact. Jesus says that her faith healed her. She had just enough faith left in her after all these years to believe that with just one encounter with Jesus her life would turn around, her breakthough would intersect with her present reality.
Contrasting this womans story is the encounter that Saul of Tarsus had with Jesus on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). Saul was on a mission to kill all those who professed to believe in Jesus Christ and were teaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand. While traveling to Damascus, Saul had an encounter with Jesus that stopped him in his tracks. This encounter changed the course of his life.
The contrast between these two encounters demonstrates that it doesn’t matter whether you have been waiting for a breakthrough for decades with only your faith intact, or your life is similiar to Saul in not being able to tollerate anything to do with Jesus Christ, but, that one encounter with Jesus Christ can bring your breakthrough. What do you need a Jesus encounter to change in your life?
PRAYER: Jesus I need to encounter you. AMEN
