Tuesday, March 22, 2011

You took a risk of faith

Mark 5:21-43

Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague."
While he was still talking, some people came from the leader's house and told him, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?"
Jesus overheard what they were talking about and said to the leader, "Don't listen to them; just trust Me."
I don't trust Jesus for healing. There, I said it, confessed it. I pray, but I don't believe. I pray small so as not to risk looking stupid ... or what?

But the gospels are clear, especially Mark. Jesus doesn't even waste time teaching much, He just does miracles, and especially He heals. He can hardly help Himself. The young and the old. Here we see two especially hopeless cases. This poor woman was sick for decades and treated probably in every different way under the sun. And the girl could not even speak for herself, because she was dead. You don't get much more hopeless than dead.

And each time it is different. The woman with bleeding didn't even want to ask, she felt so unclean and unworthy that she preferred to stay hidden. She only reached to touch Him and was healed. The young girl did not have to do anything, even have faith. She was dead! It was almost like Jesus was just showing off. There is no pattern. There is only mercy and hope.

Faith is a risk. It is a risk to ask the Father, because sometimes He does say no. But when He says yes, what a great miracle that is! How blessed He seems, at the woman's faith, so He blesses her, makes her healed and whole, something that never would have happened if she did not take the risk.

Father, help me take the risk of faith to trust You for the big things and trust that even if You say no, I will be able to withstand it. There are some prayers that will never be answered if I do not pray them. Help me to pray them and not to listen to others, not even to listen to the voice that tells me You will not help me. Let me only hear the one that says, "Just trust Me."

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