Nobody likes having the cold, even for a few days, but the woman in our story today had a much greater problem. For twelve years she had been ill and "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"!
1*.
Haven't you done something like that too? I'm not thinking of your visits to the doctor about your health. I'm thinking of the much more serious problem that everyone has - God calls it SIN!
2*.
Do you seek ‘professional' help from religious leaders in the hope that they will be able to make you better and more acceptable to God? Maybe you even think that by giving a lot of money into church at times it will surely help you to be pleasing to God! But if you were to be honest with yourself you would have to agree with God who has said that all this DOES NOT make you one bit less sinful or more pleasing to Him!
3*.
Like this woman you should be willing to admit that you are just growing worse! 2*.
After all her wasted efforts and expense this woman came to believe that she could be healed "without money and without cost" by Jesus of Nazareth!
4*.
No doubt there were many with various illnesses in the great crowd that surrounded Jesus that day. I'm sure all of them did not expect Jesus to be able or willing to heal them, but this woman really believed Jesus could heal her!
5*.
"She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak", and immediately she knew that she was healed.
"Who touched Me?" Jesus asked. Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You." But Jesus said, "Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me."
"Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed." The woman's confession was not to save her; it was only to let others know about her faith in Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you, go in peace. "
6*.
Not only was she healed, but she was given peace by Jesus - peace with God! No longer to live in fear of God's judgment! And all she had had to do was to come to Jesus in faith and trust in His power and grace to save!
It is only through faith in Jesus that you can have the healing and peace you so much need - that healing and forgiveness for your sin and that peace with God.
7*.
But you don't have to push through a crowd to get to Jesus, and you don't have to physically touch his cloak. Jesus has promised to respond to all who truly want forgiveness and new life if only they call on Him to forgive them and save them.
8*.
"Your faith has healed you, go in peace." Those wonderful words of Jesus from our story in Luke chapter 8, verses 40-48 could be true for you today if right now you would put your trust in Jesus as your only Priest and Saviour.
Bye for now,
John Nixon, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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Bible quotations from N.I.V.
