2010 – October 30 – Touched, or Being Touched?

Study from God’s Word… See the various passages from the tree synoptic Gospel accounts of Jesus performing healing and resurrection miracles in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order … Passage for Reflection: Mark 5: 30 … NIV At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

My Journal for Today: Don’t you just love reading and meditating on the various accounts by the four Gospel writers about the miracles performed by Jesus, ... like the one in today’s text where the bleeding woman merely touched Jesus’ garment, and because of her faith the very power of the Holy Spirit came from Jesus to heal the woman.

I agree with LaGard Smith in his devotional entry for today that several questions enigmatically arise from this story; and theologians have likely devoted a lot of interpretation hours and writing about why Jesus didn’t know who the woman was or about whether it was the touching of Jesus which healed the woman or was it merely her faith? I’ll leave all that theological speculation to the scholars; but I personally identify with this women who was desperately seeking the power of God for healing. I also identify with other stories of how Jesus touched the lives of others and their lives where changed forever.

You see, my friend, I reached out to receive the power of God through Jesus a little over 25 years ago in my life when I finally was led to realize that I was bleeding spiritually, ... that I was spiritually blind, ... and that I was dead in myself. And like the stories of God healing the bleeding woman because of her faith, and the sight restored of a number of people being touched by Jesus, and the life of even the dead being restored by Christ because of the faith of their loved ones, my life was restored from spiritual death to life, ... my spiritual blindness was given sight, and my bleeding spiritual weakness was given strength when my brokenness allowed me to come to a place of seeking out the loving, healing, and restoring power of God through my faith in The Christ.

So, these biblical stories of historical witnesses to the power of God working in/through Jesus, The Messiah, have great personal meaning for me. For I was that woman who desperately reached out to experience the power of God. I was the blind man who allowed Jesus to give me sight. And I was that little girl who was given life when loved ones prayed in faith that Jesus give me spiritual life when I was a walking dead man.

And I finally came to recognize that no earthy force, no religion, and no self-directed choice was going to bring me the power I sought from God to heal and restore me. No, just like the bleeding woman or the blind man, I was given the opportunity to reach out in faith to Christ and seek His healing/restoring power. And my spiritual blindness and bleeding were healed. And God saw fit, through my own faith and the faith of others who had been praying for me for years to come to spiritual life from my own self-imposed deadness, I was graciously given eternal life. Just like the bleeding woman who was given the power of God, I am one who can attest personally to the power God which is there for any and all who come humbly and sincerely seeking His redemptive power.

I pray that any who read here can be - and are - witnesses to the power of God being imparted to heal and restore the bleeding, the blind, and the blatantly dead.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, You raised me from the dead to life. You gave me sight from my blindness. And You gave me power to overcome my weakness. And, in You, I live, move, and have my being. Amen and amen!