12.19.07

"And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." Mark 5:25-34

Of all the women in the Bible reaching out for Jesus I think this is my favorite story. This woman had been suffering for so many years and when she heard that He was near she had so much faith in Him that if she could just touch the hem of His clothing she knew she would be healed.

And the most amazing part is when Jesus knew He had been touched by her. I imagine that there were hundereds of people there touching Him, many curious, some I am sure did not believe in Him and wanted proof of His exsistance. Among all of these people, one woman's faith was so strong that the simple tug of His clothes got His attention. "Who Touched me?" he says. While his disciples said many were touching him, move on, He looked around to see who it was and there she was bowing down before him in fear. She needed not to be in fear for her faith is all He needed to heal her.

This is the type of faith I long to have with our Lord Jesus, although I believe in our Lord and will do anything for Him, I admittingly lack in that complete trust and faith over our Lord. It is that crazy flesh of mine that wants to make things happen right this second instead of giving it over to Him to take care of. I will give you an example of how great Jesus works when you put complete faith in Him.

I will honestly say that I am overweight and always struggling to lose weight, I have starved myself, exercised profoundly, cut out so many things from my diet, and tried every diet and diet pill imagined only to lose a few pounds and gain it all back and then some once I made myself sick. I was so discouraged and dissappointed in myself, I was sick and tired all the time and really at a loss on what I could do to make myself just healthy again. Well, about 6 weeks ago I decided that it was time to stop stressing out over this and trying to do it all myself. I asked God to help me, I began putting my focus on Jesus instead of losing weight. Within the first week I was feeling better and since Oct. 25, 2007 I have lost 15 pounds, about 2 pounds a week, the norm of what a person should lose in a week. And guess what? I am not starving myself, I am not exercising profoundly and I am not cutting anything out of my diet. My complete trust in Jesus helped me to start losing weight, the second I take my focus off Him I want to fall back into my old habits of taking diet pills and staving myself. Praise Jesus that He got me away from all that before it was too late.

Jesus is there for all who come to Him, He loves you so much and will take care of every struggle that you are dealing with. Put your faith in Him and see what He can do for you.