The Essential JesusSample

At His Feet

PRAY: Lord, my life is so complicated. Sometimes I feel like I've run out of answers. All I know to do is humbly bow before You and wait for Your peace and help.

READ: Mark 5:21-43

REFLECT: Politicians work hard to get "Big Mo" on their side; it's the insider's term for momentum, and it's what wins elections. Jesus was no politician, but at this point in His ministry, Big Mo was definitely working for Him. His authoritative teaching and dramatic miracles were causing big crowds to follow Him everywhere He went (Mark 5:21, 24). Our passage today weaves together the accounts of two miracles that occurred during this exciting and chaotic time in Jesus' ministry.

A private healing. An unnamed woman in the crowd had suffered from uncontrollable bleeding for twelve years (v. 25). Long-term physical problems often lead to emotional and spiritual depression as well. Difficult though it may be, God sometimes allows us to experience a "dark night of the soul" in order to help us see our need for Him, as He did for this woman. Her friends may have criticized her desperate scheme (v. 28). But Jesus said, "Your faith has healed you" (v. 34). Sometimes faith requires us to take desperate measures.

A public healing. The daughter of a well-known synagogue ruler named Jairus, a man who would have been aligned with the group opposing Jesus, had fallen sick. But once again we see God using a health emergency to produce true faith. As Dr. C. Everett Koop, a pediatric surgeon and former Surgeon General of the United States, once said, "There are no atheists at the bedside of a dying child." His colleagues may have criticized Jairus for being a turncoat. But Jesus said, "Don't be afraid; just believe" (v. 36). Sometimes faith requires us to ignore what others think.

A common element in both of these healings is the way the unnamed woman and Jairus approached Jesus: they "fell at His feet" (vv. 22, 33). The surest way to experience Jesus' healing power is to humbly reach out to Him, and then wait for Him to intercede in His time and in His way.

APPLY: In order to find the faith you need now, do you need to take desperate measures or ignore what others think? Why?

PRAY: Bring to God in prayer the area of your life where you feel the greatest sense of desperation.