Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Exercising Desperate Faith

MARK 5:24-34 – And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

THEME OF THE DAY:  EXERCISING DESPERATE FAITH.  Our faith in the Lord Jesus is a desperate faith.  I didn’t say “blind and ignorant faith” but desperate faith.  It has to be because only the desperate come to Him, like the woman with an incurable disease in today’s scripture. But before we learn from her lessons about desperate faith, we should define desperate in two ways.

We start with a standard dictionary definition. It means “feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with or solve.” Now, a good biblical definition of spiritual desperation comes from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3).  Spiritually desperate people see they are spiritually dead, enslaved to the sinful ways of the world, sons and daughters of disobedience to God unable to change their identity, and by nature under the wrath of God with no hope and no means of deliverance by self-help.  And what we see in the acts of the woman physically applies to us spiritually. Let’s identify the lessons.

The first lesson is the futility of trying to solve an incurable disease in the strength of self. The woman exhausted all self-prescribed means to be healed –  who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse (Mark 5:26).  Whether it be salvation or trying to live the Christian life, we must “bottom out” and arrive to the point of total abandonment of any sources of deliverance or strength within ourselves.  And this is where God takes every person coming to Christ or living for Christ – the end of themselves.

Second lesson is the woman went to Jesus.  Granted she didn’t know much about Him but what she did hear about Him moved her to Him – hope.  Mark writes, “She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd” (Mark 5:27a).  This is where desperate faith begins to take action; a confidence, even if only mustard seed size, to go to Jesus.  She did. We must and with hope that He will do what He is able to do – heal, primarily spiritually.

Finally, desperate faith is validated and rewarded – She touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:27-29, 34). True faith acts. It moves to Jesus with hope and confidence. It doesn’t wait. It cannot. It is desperate.  Yes, the woman teaches us much about trusting faith.  Spend time in her story and ask the Lord to make us such desperate people relying on Him for His glory!

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see the depth of my dependency on Your Son that leads me to total reliance on Him.”

QUOTE: “Our faith is not a blind faith, but it is an exercise of desperation knowing we have no place to go but Jesus.”

 

In the affection of Christ Jesus,

Pastor Jim