Mark Devotions
[Please do read the passage before (or after) reading the devotion.]
“Daughter, your faith has healed you…be freed from your suffering.” Jesus spoke these words to a woman who had suffered 12 years from what was not only an ongoing physical ailment, but what also made her ritually unclean (which meant she would not have been allowed into the Temple for worship). In her desperation she had pushed through the crowd, touched Jesus’ outer garment, and was immediately healed. We know that it was the power that came out from Jesus that healed her, but that made her faith the all-important response to what was available to her through the person of Jesus. Jesus’ love is always there in its various forms – forgiveness, peace, healing – constantly being offered to us. Faith means that we respond to that love and reach out to “touch” Him; there is no telling what healing will take place, but we will be freed from the suffering that enslaves, to a relationship that makes us “daughter” (or “son”).
Prayer: Father, I am grateful that you give me a new identity, one of being your daughter, or son; all I needed to do was reach out and touch Jesus in desperation and begin a relationship with Him. You did not mind if I was sinful and messed up on the inside. You still took hold of me – all I needed was reach out to You… Lord Jesus, I don’t want to be among those that crowd You and even brush against You yet never really experience You. Instead may I never stop wanting You to flow into me, just like You flowed into that woman and changed her. Amen.
