“Now, in the crowd that day was a woman who had suffered horribly from continual bleeding for twelve years.  She had endured a great deal under the care of various doctors, yet in spite of spending all she had on their treatments, she was not getting better, but worse.  When she heard about Jesus’ healing power, she pushed through the crowd and came up from behind him and touched his prayer shawl.  For she kept saying to herself, “If only I could touch his clothes, I know I will be healed.”   As soon as her hand touched him, her bleeding immediately stopped! She knew it, for she could feel her body instantly being healed of her disease!

Jesus knew at once that someone had touched him, for he felt the power that always surged around him had passed through him for someone to be healed. He turned and spoke to the crowd, saying, “Who touched my clothes?”   His disciples answered, “What do you mean, who touched you? Look at this huge crowd—they’re all pressing up against you.”  But Jesus’ eyes swept across the crowd, looking for the one who had touched him for healing.

When the woman who experienced this miracle realized what had happened to her, she came before him, trembling with fear, and threw herself down at his feet, saying, “I was the one who touched you.” And she told him her story of what had just happened.

Then Jesus said to her, “Daughter, because you dared to believe, your faith has healed you. Go with peace in your heart, and be free from your suffering!” – Mark 5:25-34 The Passion Translation 

I remember hearing the story of the “woman with the issue of blood” growing up many times.  Maybe you have too.  But there is something very important I want to point out about this story – this isn’t a story about healing.  Healing is in this story and is a tremendous outcome of her story so I don’t take the women’s healing lightly – what a miracle she received after 12 years of continual bleeding!!

But this isn’t a story of healing – this is a story about faith.

For many, many, MANY years of my life I thought faith was believing hard enough that something would come to pass.  I remember in Charismatic circles we would say things like, “IF you have enough faith….” and “with faith as small as a mustard seed” anything could come to pass.  Even mountains could move.  And so in the midst of trials and struggles I would think, “man, I must be low on faith.  You would think I could come up with a mustard seed worth of faith to see me through this problem.”

But do you see how that was wrong?  It was focused on me.  My level of faith.  How much I could believe.  It looked a lot more of what Tammy could come up with in her faith versus what God could do.  Does that make sense?  It was a lot about my own works and not about His divine power.

So in the woman with the issue of blood, it wasn’t that she was full of faith – she merely dared to believe.  She dared to believe Jesus was bigger than her medical condition.  Her faith relied on the fact that Jesus was who He says He is – the healer, the miracle worker, the one who can change it all.

I feel like sometimes we view faith as how much WE can do to get God to see we believe – when faith truly is we believe because we see who God really is….

The woman with the issue of blood knew she merely had to touch Jesus’ robe because His divine power has given her everything she needed for living a Godly life (2 Peter 1:3).   She dared to believe.

I don’t know about you but I want to choose faith not because I know it’s the right thing to do or because maybe then God will notice me and see me through a struggle but I want to choose faith because I dare to believe Jesus is who He says He is and He cares about me and my concerns and that He knows if I can just touch a hem of what He is doing then my faith in HIM can make me well.

Look for some of us that might mean our issues don’t go away immediately.  It may mean we still walk though whatever issues that are placed before us, but we walk through them in faith that He is who He says He is and He will still be the Messiah – leading us and saving us through.

Choosing faith is not about our works but simply believing in Him.

This is Day 2 of the series “Choosing Faith: 31 Days to Seeing God in the Midst of it All.”
You can find the beginning of the series here.