Desperate For JesusSample

Restored relationship was Jesus’s true goal of the woman’s healing (Luke 8:48). Jesus’s response to the woman’s immediate healing was to ask, “Who is the one who touched Me?” (Luke 8:45). 

Jesus’s question was not posed out of ignorance but was issued as a call to the woman to come out of her secrecy and seclusion and testify to the healing that she had received. The woman responded in obedience to the call and fell down before Jesus trembling, declaring why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed because of it (Luke 8:47). The woman who had been socially ostracized because of her condition was now giving public witness to her healing. Because she had been made pure, she could now experience a renewed relationship with her people and with God. Jesus’s question was a summons beyond the miracle of the healing; it was a directive to restored relationship. The woman was no longer an anonymous individual hiding her impurity from the crowd; she was now a daughter whom Jesus could send to go in peace (Luke 8:48).

Many people who long for healing or comfort want the blessing without staying around for the relationship. The thing that distinguishes Jesus from every other miracle worker or healer is that He wants to do more than just heal the wound or grant the blessing. Through the affliction and the healing, Jesus desires to restore us to the relationship with Him for which we were created. 

Are you seeking a blessing or a healing without staying around for the relationship? Do you want a transaction in which God gives you what you are asking for, or are you seeking to know Him and deepen your intimacy with Him regardless of your circumstances? 

If you would like to read more from Dr. Tony Evans, click here for a pdf download of and ebook titled "Joy in Adversity."