Be Deliberate

Mark 5:^28-29 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Mark 5:²⁷ “She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.” Unlike Jairus, this woman did not approach Jesus from the front. She was afraid because of her condition. She probably thought that if she approaches Jesus from the front and someone finds out that she is flowing, she would be stoned. However, she did not stop and turn around; she came from behind. Faith overcomes fear and shame. This woman took a big risk. The idea is that when someone that is ceremonially unclean touches something that is clean, he or she makes that thing unclean.

She took a big risk touching Jesus because she knew Jesus was a prophet. Jesus’ response could have been, ‘somebody just made me unclean’ and she would be in real trouble. But she banked on Jesus’s mercy. Every time you bank on mercy, you never ever come short. This woman approached God, driven by her faith. Your faith should drive you to God. Your challenges should drive you closer to God, not further away from Him. Fear and shame should drive you to God and not keep you from God because faith overcomes fear and shame.

When you look at the crowd in this story, they were aimless people as far as getting anything from Jesus was concerned. Mark 5:³¹ “His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?‘” The crowd was just bumping on Jesus, there was no intentionality in their interaction with Jesus. It is a terrible thing to be with God and to be unintentional. It is a sad thing to be in the presence of Jesus and to get nothing from Him apart from the fact that you took a few selfies with Him. If they had mobile phones in that day, many people would have been taking selfies with Jesus. You have to be deliberate.

As we see in the story in Mark 5:21-43 (please read), God can answer everybody, and everybody will be fine. God does not need to keep your answer because He wants to answer somebody else. So, you have to be intentional, you have to be deliberate. Every time you get the privilege of coming into God’s presence in corporate fellowship, corporate spiritual exercise or in your personal walk with God, you have to be both intentional and deliberate.

Prayer (song): Touch me with Your hand, Jesus. Touch me with Your hand, Jesus. Lord don’t let me go, the same way I came. Touch me with Your hand, Jesus. Amen!