By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
The editor of a big-city newspaper had a reputation for being stubborn and hardheaded. “You always think you’re right,” a reader told him as they bumped into one another on the sidewalk outside the newspaper office. “Can’t you admit sometimes you may be wrong?”
“Yes,” said the editor. “I do remember one time I was wrong.” “Aha! And when was that?” “It happened once,” the editor said, “when I thought I was wrong, but I wasn’t.” Now there’s a confident guy.
In the Gospel of Mark, we discover a woman whose confidence in Jesus provides us an excellent example to follow. Mark doesn’t tell us her name, but her story challenges us to question our level of confidence in God.
We find the story in Mark 5.
An enormous crowd surrounded Jesus, shoulder to shoulder. A woman with 12 years of persistent bleeding was in the crowd that day. Mark writes of her, “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” (Mark 5:24-26). Those who should know how to help her couldn’t.
What must she have thought? Mark said she suffered, and certainly that means emotional pain as well as physical. She was at the end of her rope, ready to give up hope she’d ever experience health again. Despairing and afraid.
Don’t skip over the next words Mark wrote. “When she heard about Jesus…” (verse 27). At first, she didn’t know what all the fuss was about that drew such a crowd.
But when she learned it was Jesus, something happened in her. An unwavering confidence swelled, and she knew if she could get to him, Jesus would heal her. “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed” (verse 28).
She pushed her way through the throng, motivated by this bedrock certainty. What an amazing conviction-”if I can get close enough to touch him, my suffering will end.”
Hers was not a last-ditch effort. Not a desperation Hail Mary pass with no time showing on the clock. She knew Jesus had healed others, and he would heal her.
So she elbowed and snaked herself closer and closer to Jesus. Finally, he came within arm’s length. She stretched and touched him.
Marvel with me at the next line. “Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering” (verse 29). Instantly she was healed. Bleeding stopped. All her pain gone.
Doesn’t her confidence amaze you? She believed without a shadow of a doubt all she had to do was touch Jesus and she’d be healed. Such simple, uncomplicated faith.
Her confidence is even more amazing when we remember she spent her last cent to find a cure. She’d been to many doctors, and none could heal her.
For 12 years! Yet her suffering only deepened with each passing year, and her dreams for healing deflated under the weight of increasing pain.
And yet, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Not if I can touch his clothes, I might be healed. Or, if I touch his clothes, I hope I get healed.
Or, if I touch his clothes and change my behavior, maybe he’ll heal me. No, there’s not a shred of doubt. Touch Jesus’ clothes = Be healed. Period.
Where do you find unwavering confidence like hers? The only clue we’re given why she radiated confidence are these five words, “When she heard about Jesus” (verse 27). What must she have learned about him?
-He heals the sick of every kind of disease.
-He loves and cares for those who suffer.
-He not only can heal; he is willing to heal.
-He doesn’t discriminate against women like the religious leaders do.
Your story may not be desperation for physical healing. It might be recovery from depression, fear, or anxiety. Maybe it’s an addiction to alcohol or drugs or gossip or eating or spending or pornography.
Are you as confident as this woman that Jesus will break your bondage and set you free from the suffering it produces?
You can be if you believe-confidently believe-what you’ve read about Jesus in the Bible. Stories of his faithfulness in the lives of those around you. Even what you’ve seen God do in your own life.
Confident faith gains unwavering strength when it’s rooted in someone who always does what he says he’ll do. Someone who has a flawless track record of faithfulness and achievement.
The woman in Mark 5 found that someone in Jesus. So can you. When you look for someone you can place unwavering confidence in, you need look no further than Jesus. He’ll do what he says he’ll do. His track record proves it.
May your confident faith become as simple as the woman’s-If I just ____, Jesus will ____.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.