(Mark 5:25-29 NLT) A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 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.
This week I introduce you to another Biblical character who was under a tremendous amount of negative stress. We don't know her name and most preachers simply call her by her issue, naming her "The woman with the issue of blood," because that is how the traditional King James Version describes her. To understand her stress we must first understand what the "issue" was. Basically, one day her menstrual cycle started and it never stopped. To have your menstrual stuck in the "on" position would be bad enough today, but back then the situation was exponentially worse because of the legal parameters of her condition. The Levitical Law stated that a woman was "unclean" during her menstrual cycle; meaning that she could not have the normal physical interactions she could during the rest of the month. Since this woman's cycle never stopped, it caused her to stay away from everyone while she was in her condition and it basically made her a prisoner in her own body (see Lev 15:19-31).
Identify with her for a moment. Physically she was drained, emotionally she was spent, and socially she was an outcast. If that were not bad enough, the Bible says that she had spent her life's savings on doctors and did not get any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. So there she was: financially broke, physically bleeding, psychologically hurting, and socially enclosed.
The religious system of the time made her limitations clear to her, but it provided no alternative to her life of despair. By all accounts she was a good candidate for giving up hope. If anyone (humanly speaking) had the right to throw in the towel and just give up, she did. If it was understandable for anyone to succumb to the pressures of the stress, she was the one. No one would have blamed her if she had 'lost it.' It seemed as though life had dealt her a bad hand and her religion had no answer. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were sticklers for the Law, but they had no miracle working power. Her situation was extremely dire and it seemed like she had no way out... but wait, that's when she heard about Jesus! She heard about a man that was going about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). I am not sure what she heard or how she heard it, but whatever she heard, it gave her hope! We will stop here for today.
So what does this mean to you? It means that one encounter with God can change your life forever. I am not a big advocate of preaching "one touch" or "one encounter" type messages, because it draws people that only want to get something from God and not have a true relationship with God. But whether I am an advocate or not, the truth is that one encounter with God can change your life forever. This woman had tried everything else and she now believed that one encounter with Jesus could stop her bleeding and restore her to health.
She had the audacity to believe in a God she could not see, through a man (Jesus) she did not know, and she received her breakthrough. What are you able to believe? If you can believe it you become a candidate to receive it.
Father, no matter how bad of a situation I find myself in, I know that one touch, one word, or one encounter with You can turn it around. There is nothing too hard for You! There is nothing that You cannot do! Your hands are not too short that You cannot reach me. You power is not too weak that You cannot provide a breakthrough and a breakout! I am never hopeless, because You have committed to be with me always... never to leave me or forsake me. Since You are always with me, I am never helpless. Since I am never helpless, I am never hopeless. My hope is in You and I believe You can meet me today, right where I am, and You can manifest Your glory in such a way that You will help me to get to where You want me to be! I know You can and I believe You will! In Jesus' name. Amen!
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