Reaching Out to God for Healing

You know, the many requests that we have, often they're requests for healing. I mean, there could be other job-related issues and many financial issues and other things that people are struggling with, but we often hear about, you know, whenever we're sick. We hear about whenever we are in need of God's help that way. And, of course, what's being done is that members are reaching out for God's attention, and they're reaching out for His intervention. For His help. Because clearly, when we read the books of the New Testament particularly, but you see it in the Old as well, as He did extend to Israel the healing that they might request at times. It doesn't seem like they too often requested it, but at least in the New Testament, we clearly see the life of Jesus exemplified healing in many different forms.

And I know as we think about our own healing and whenever I'm sick or whenever I'm down, I would like for that healing to occur immediately. And that also is, I think, what most of us also like. And yet what we find is sometimes healing is immediate, and sometimes, maybe even often, it's more gradual. And that's certainly the case, that we gradually improve and maybe we ultimately then are better. And then other times, it seems to just be delayed, and delayed, and delayed. And again, we can still benefit from that type of setting. I want to take a look at an account today, an account that is in many ways, I think, somewhat unique. It's an account of a woman that Jesus healed immediately. It was a miraculous healing. It was a healing that didn't take months, weeks, months, years. It happened all of a sudden. It occurred. And yet, you know, what we read in the three different gospel accounts is that, you know, there's significant understanding that we can gain. Now, of course, all of us would like to be, if we're sick, we would like to have this type of answer, an immediate answer, an immediate healing. And yet, as I study this account, and as I am trying to title or think of a title or think of a description, as most of you know, I'm not very good at that. I'm not good at coming up with some kind of a title that easily fits whatever sermon I'm giving. But I want to go through these accounts, the three different accounts that we find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and show you that there are additional things that you learn from one to the next to the next. And actually, all of these things are important for us whenever we're sick, but whenever we're praying for others, whenever we're asking for God's help, because there's revelation here in the Word of God for us to understand and to grow in. And I guess I could say that, in a sense, in this account, this incident with this woman who was healed immediately, it almost looks like it's a sidebar. It almost looks like it's a side attraction, because Jesus has actually been called by someone else to come and heal their daughter who is very sick and would appear to be very close to death. And yet, on his way, there's a sneak attack. There's a sneak approach by this woman. And let's look at it here in Matthew 9. Matthew 9, starting in verse 18.

This, of course, is regarding Jesus' encounter. It says, while he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came and knelt before him and said, My daughter has just died, or she's very near death, as you see from some of the other accounts, but come and lay your hands on her and she will live. So here was an appeal to Jesus. A man will later learn his name to be Jarius. He is a leader of the synagogue. Now, he may have been, probably even reluctant, come and ask Jesus for help. Maybe that wouldn't look too good as a leader of the synagogue to be coming to Jesus, but he didn't have a lot of alternatives. He realized, my daughter is very, very, very ill and maybe very near death, and I need help. And so, he made what might be an unpopular appeal to Jesus. Come and help her. Please, lay your hands on her. You can help her. And so, what we see in verse 19, Jesus got up and followed him with his disciples. So here they were. You know, Jesus had been contacted. He and his disciples were getting together. They were starting to head out. They were going to go to where Jarius lived, and they were going to see if they could help his daughter. And, of course, obviously, Jesus could help his daughter. And he did, and I'm not really even going to read the description of his healing of this little girl because he clearly was able to help her as well. Even, you know, as severely sick or very close to death, Jesus said she's not dead but sleeping. And yet, what I want to start with is in verse 20. Here in Matthew 9, verse 20, it says, suddenly. Suddenly, a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages or some types of issue of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak or garment. In verse 21, it says, she thought.

She said to herself, she thought, if I can just touch his coat, if I can just touch his cloak, I'll be made well. And then in verse 22, and again you see this account in Matthew being somewhat of a summary. This is not giving us all of the details. This is giving us kind of a summary. It's a very brief account of what it was that happened, and we'll learn more about it in Luke and more about it in Mark. But here Jesus turned in verse 22 and said to her, take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly, the woman was made well.

Now, that's a neat little story. It's a neat little summary. And yet, I think there are some very valuable lessons in that neat description of Jesus heading off. Now, was Jesus intending to go heal this woman? No, that wasn't what happened. He was intending to walk wherever they had to go. He and his disciples going to Jerry's home and trying to help his little daughter.

But all of a sudden, as they went, there was this sneak attack. There was this reaching out. And that's the first thing I want to mention. The three things that I see that we can learn from this is that this woman, and it doesn't give her name, this woman reached out to Jesus.

She realized how much she needed help. And of course, that's the first thing that I think we should keep in mind because whenever we are ill or whenever we're sick, we are told in the book of James that, well, we ought to call for the elders of the church. We ought to be anointed with oil. And it says, the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up. That's in James 5, verse 14. And we're all familiar with that. And yet, see, sometimes we delay that. Sometimes we wait, and, well, maybe I'll get better. And yet, this woman knew I need help. I need help, and so I'm willing to reach out and ask for help. I'm willing to seek the help that I believe is available. And even when you look at Acts, chapter 19, Acts chapter 19 is another illustration in addition to what we read in the book of James.

But in Acts 19, you see in verse 11, that God did extraordinary miracles through Paul.

So that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them. See, that's the example of anointing, which we believe in. We believe in that because it's in the Word of God. We believe that that's what it says. See, there are a lot of organizations who, you know, probably read the Bible and yet don't do what it says in James 5.

You know, that's something that our church and elders in the church have very commonly done for decades. And yet, we understand that that's what we're told to do. That's a part of our obedience. What we're actually doing is we request anointing and whether it is directly an anointing or an anointed cloth that is, you know, also a method or manner that can be used and usually whenever those are sent out, if they're sent out by one of our elders or by me, you know, we have a letter of instruction that goes over things as far as, you know, reminders about what God's Word says and how we can use this cloth as a method of anointing.

But what we're actually doing whenever we request that is to, you know, we're submitting ourselves or subjecting ourselves to the Word of God. You know, we're simply reading what it says, we're believing what it says, and as this woman very clearly did, you know, she was sneaking up and reaching out. She was doing something that probably was even viewed somewhat dimly by those around Jesus. I can just see, you know, because of the way that we're going to see the descriptions here and the next two scriptures that we'll go through.

You can just see, you know, the fact that Jesus was, I'm sure, he was followed by a number of people. And I'm sure, in a sense, the disciples who also were following him and who were close to him and learning from him, they were kind of the Secret Service. You know, they were kind of the ones who were probably closest to him. They were kind of up around him, and then the crowd was, you know, all around, and because they'd seen what he could do, they had seen other miracles that he had performed.

And yet this woman somehow got up and got close enough to him to touch him, to touch his clothes. And again, the thing is, she was reaching out, and we need to keep that in mind. Obviously, as Jesus said, your faith has made you whole or well. Faith was involved, and clearly she expressed faith in God. She expressed faith in the power of God. She probably had seen some miracles that Jesus had done. Maybe she saw someone and knew someone who had been healed, or maybe if she hadn't seen it, she probably read it, or maybe not read it, but hear it from others.

She knew what it was he was able to do. And lastly, what I want to mention in this regard is in verse 22, how is it that Jesus responded? How is it that he addressed her? He said, take heart, daughter. Now, what does the King James say? If you're reading that, does it say something different than that? I'm reading a new revised. Be a good cheer, daughter. Okay, the translation that I'm reading says, take heart. Be a good cheer, daughter. So, you know, what was he saying?

Well, he was expressing a tenderness, a kindness, a desire to comfort. Be of good cheer, be of good comfort. My daughter, you know, he was expressing a love and a tenderness that clearly is the example that he set all the time, at least in dealing with people who needed help. And what we find from that is that God truly cares, and in this case, clearly, Jesus cared about human suffering.

And truly, this woman clearly had been suffering. Let's go over to the account in the book of Luke. The account in the book of Luke is in Luke chapter 8. And you can see additional information that is revealed about this sneak attack, about this encounter with Jesus where this woman was received a miraculous, immediate healing.

Here in verse 43, and again, when you look at the account in verse, let's see, 42, Jesus went and the crowds—let me back up in verse 42 of Luke 8.

Jairus had a daughter, or an only daughter, 12-year-old daughter, who was dying.

And as he went, as Jesus went, the crowds pressed in on him. That's why I would think that it was not just the disciples around him, but the crowds who were following him, and they were maybe growing, growing because of their interest in who he was, what he was able to do, how he interacted with people. And yet in verse 43, he says, there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years. And though she had spent all that she had on physicians, no one could cure her. Now, this, of course, I think points out, and this is mentioned here, and it's also mentioned even in a little more expanded way in the book of Mark that we will go to.

See, this lady, you know, was pretty much, you know, at her wit's end. She had tried everything she could think of. She had gone to the doctors who were available, to the many different doctors that said that she had spent all she had on physicians. And yet, the doctors could not cure her. And I know often, you know, if we, and this, of course, is not saying we should not use or go to doctors, this is saying that if you go to doctors, they will probably try to help you as best they can, but they either may or may not be able to help. Sometimes it's even a frustration to try to go from one to another, and I'm sure that's what this lady may have done, to go from every imaginable type of, anybody tell her of a solution that you might seek. I bet she was chasing it down. It says she spent everything she had on physicians, and no one could cure her. And of course, you know, this was Luke who was a physician, who was writing this, and stating that, well, her healing, you know, was at least didn't seem to be available through a human being or through a physical means. And so what you can learn from that is clearly that, you know, doctors can help. And Jesus said, you know, those who were sick, you know, may need to go to a physician. And yet, ultimately, who's the real physician? Who's the one who really was able to help this woman? Who was the one who was the real healer? And of course, that healer was Jesus. That healer was God, in this case, in a human form. God in a human form as Jesus.

So it says in verse 44, after, you know, she had, I'm sure, been very frustrated with the efforts described here in verse 43. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhages stopped. So again, she reached out to Jesus. She, she actually, it appears from the way this is described, you know, she probably had to fight her way up to where Jesus is, get through the larger band of folks and into and through the disciples to get to where Jesus is and actually to reach out and touch his clothing. And so, yet, she was willing to do that. She probably was even somewhat hidden in the crowd. It wasn't real visible that, you know, that she was in need. And yet she knew she was in need. She knew she needed to reach out to Jesus. And of course, she was at her wit's end. She was exhausted. She had suffered for 12 years. Now, many of us may have had illnesses that seem to have gone on for a long time. You know, I don't know that most of us would think, well, I've had this concern for 12 years. Maybe we have. Maybe we've suffered with something for a long period of time, and maybe others have.

And yet this lady obviously, you know, she was, she was pretty much exasperated by the limitations and the difficulties she struggled with for so long. And I'm sure she had lived a life of isolation. You know, whenever someone would be looked upon as being ill or sick, and maybe even considered by their own way of looking at it unclean, which, you know, I don't know exactly how they would have described that. But you could see that she was probably pushed aside. She was probably ignored. She was probably unaccepted. She had lived in a lot of isolation and probably a lot of humiliation. She almost seemed to be ashamed of the condition that she had suffered from and almost afraid to openly touch Jesus. Afraid to reach out. I don't know if I ought to do this. I really think I should do it, but I don't know if that's going to be the right way. What if he reprimands me for doing that?

And so, I think it's amazing to see that even in spite of that, in spite of the difficulties that she may have had to reach him, she was willing to do it. She was willing to go to whatever means needed to reach out and to be close to the one that she thought could give her the answer.

And in verse 45, Jesus asked after she had reached out and touched him and realized, I feel better. I feel different. You know, something in my body feels different. I can tell.

And I don't know whether all of us can identify with that. Some of you, as far as ladies, may be more sensitive. I'm pretty dull, so I'm not. I wouldn't maybe immediately know something has changed in my life or body, but maybe I would. And some of you probably are more sensitive. I certainly know my wife would be more sensitive. She would know if something's different and be able to articulate that better than I could. But it's very clear that she knew something had happened. And Jesus said in verse 45, Who touched me? And when all denied it, you know, nobody fessed up. Nobody said anything. She didn't say anything, and no one else said anything. Peter said, Master, the crowd surrounds you, and you ask who pressed in and touched you?

That's ridiculous! You know, we're all standing around you, and we've got all these people mobbing us, and they're all trying to get close to you, and we're kind of running into each other, and you're asking who touched you? And of course, Jesus says in verse 46, somebody touched me.

Someone touched me because I noticed that power had gone out from me.

See, he, of course, was a source of power. He was a source of power here on earth. And Jesus knew, and of course, we find this, I don't know that you see that description in any of other of the healings. You know, this is somewhat unique to this description, where it describes the power from God that intervened to provide a healing that there wasn't some physical means of trying to come up with. You know, they exhausted pretty much all of those means, and the power of God, the power of healing, which is a prerogative of God. And I think, as I look at it here in this case, a gift, a gift from God, because it was a gift that was extended to this woman, even though, you know, Jesus wasn't intending to focus on her. She was reaching out. She was reaching out for help. And so in verse 47, when the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling and fell down, falling down before Him. She declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed. You know, she all of a sudden, you know, didn't appear to be the pariah that she had been shortly before that.

She was now almost the center of attention. She was now able to articulate and explain, in a sense, explain real boldly why I needed to get up here. I needed to touch Him or His clothes.

And because of my belief and faith in Him, as He has told me, you know, that's the healing that I seek, the healing that I've wanted for years has been made available to me. And He said to her, be a good comfort daughter. Be a good comfort daughter. Daughter, your faith has made you whole.

Go in peace. See, she had exhibited a belief in God, a belief in Jesus, in that she understood, at least, that He had the power from God to provide this type of healing. And, of course, I think we have to be reminded of that. You know, whenever we're sick, you know, we want help, we need help, and we certainly want to reach out to Jesus, and we want to do that in faith.

And yet many times we have to, and there are things that, in a sense, build up our faith, and there are probably things that also kind of pull our faith down. And so, in some ways, we have to kind of move away from those things that pull us down and do the things. I know I, at times, think that, well, you know, I'm wanting to draw close to God, I'm wanting to feel the help from God that He says is available, and yet if I'm not kind of focusing very well, then I may not feel all that close to God. And yet if I go back and focus on His Word, I was doing this just the other day, I thought, well, I'd like to draw close to God, but I don't seem to be much different than I am all the rest of the time. And yet I realized, well, I haven't been reading the things that commonly help me, reading the things in the Bible, even things that I'm familiar with or aware of, and that blew me up, and the examples that are just uplifting whenever you fill your mind with that.

Well, then that tends to, I think, bully our faith. And, of course, this lady was saying, you know, that, and Jesus told her, your faith is what has made you whole. Your faith in who I am, your faith in what I'm able to do is important. It's significant, and it's insignificant for all of us as well, because each and every one of us, you know, are learning to live by faith. We're learning to live in faith, but by faith, and that faith is in the Son of God. It's in the power that's available to us through Jesus Christ. So let's take a look at the last one here in Mark chapter 5. This is actually even a longer account. We saw the one in Matthew only being a couple of verses. The one in Luke is a little longer, and yet here in Mark, in Mark chapter 5, you find again the same account, the same setting. Jesus is planning to go to heal the young girl.

Verse 24, he went with him, large crowd followed him, and it says in this case they pressed in on him. It wasn't just a matter. You know, he really needed, he really needed to receive the intervention that, you know, the protection, I guess, in a sense, you know, that the crowd was pressing in on him.

And so in verse 25, it says, Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years, and she had endured much under many physicians. And so again, the description is just a little different. Actually, you find Luke writing about this, that the physicians that she had sought had not been able to help her. Mark makes it even more elaborate. She endured much under many physicians. She had spent everything she had. She was no better. He even went ahead to say she's even worse.

She seems to progressively be getting worse. And I don't know if Mark didn't want to, or Luke didn't want to say that, but nonetheless, this is what Mark seems to indicate. So she had been enduring this affliction for a lengthy period of time, a long, long period of time. And in verse 27, it says, here in Mark 5, verse 27, she had heard about Jesus. She had heard about him, even as Mike was mentioning in the sermonette. You know, it's important to hear the message, the message of the kingdom of God, the message about Jesus Christ, about who he was, about who he is, about what he's going to be, about how we can serve him forever.

See, she had heard about Jesus, and that hearing had led to some belief, and that belief has led to a faith that propelled her forward in reaching out. So she heard about Jesus. She came up behind him in the crowd, touched his cloak. For she said, again, thinking to herself, if I could just touch his clothes, I'll be made well. See, she again reached out in faith, and immediately her emory stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. See, she was absolutely thrilled. I'm sure, you know, whether anybody else in that what appears to be fairly large crowd, whether anybody else knew what was going on with her, she immediately knew that she was healed, and she was thrilled. And she knew, what did she know? Well, she knew that nothing I have ever done has helped this. Nothing that any of the physicians that I've gone to has helped this.

She knew where this healing had come from. She knew that it had come from the Son of God. It had come from God's miraculous intervention in her life. I imagine that that buoyed her spirits. I imagine that picked her up to where she was just excited. Of course, it says in verse 30, immediately, aware that power had gone forth from him. This is what we also learned in Luke.

Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes? And again, you see the interaction with the disciples. The disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing in on you. How can you say, Who touched me? They were defensive of, I guess, their ability to keep people away from him. Inability to keep people away. And so they were a little bit frustrated. But also, what do you see revealed by the disciples? That's going to be in contrast to what Jesus is going to do and say. What you see is that the disciples, as we've discussed before, you know, they were in a learning mode. They were in a growing mode. They were certainly not mature, spirit-minded Christians at the beginning. And even closer on, they were still sometimes clueless about what it was that Jesus said over and over again, and what's going to happen, and who I am, and what's going to happen whenever I am taken and killed. See, they were coming to be aware of who he was. They were coming to understand that. And yet, in this case, as you can see, they say, you see the crowd pressing in on you. How can you say who touched you? That's ridiculous. And yet, you know, the disciples actually showed little empathy, little concern, really very little patience for other people. See, they, in a sense, were kind of defending themselves. They were defending their own ability to kind of keep the people away from him, or to allow him to be able to travel where he needed to travel, because he was gone somewhere. He was going to heal a little girl, which he did.

But see, in this incident, the disciples, they needed to learn as well. They needed to have some sympathy for this lady. They needed to have more concern than they obviously showed. They needed patience with people, and that's what we're going to see here in the next few verses.

Jesus looked around to see who had done this in verse 32. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, she came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him everything. Told him the whole truth. I bet she told him what had been happening over the last 12 years. I'm sure she told him, I went here, I went there, I did this, I did that, I took this potion, I took these pills, I don't know what they had at that point, and I did everything possible. And I have felt isolated, I've felt shunned, I've felt people have looked down on me because, well, that's the sick lady. We know she's been sick for decades. I'm sure she explained everything to him.

And yet, in a sense, what we see as she came before Jesus and in a sense somewhat of an apprehensive way, she fell down before him and yet she told him the whole truth.

See, what was it that she was, in a sense, being relieved of? She was kind of confessing, you know, and there's a certain relief that we have whenever we acknowledge, you know, our limitations when we recognize that, well, we don't have any limitations. We have many limitations and God has no limitations. He is able to intervene and help and restore and He's able to restore immediately should He choose to do so. And obviously, in this case, He did. And of course, she was also saying a deep burden has been lifted off of me. I'm able to look out with the help of God. I'm able to look forward. I'm able to be encouraged. I'm able to have hope.

And I'm no longer bearing this burden, bearing this illness, what seems to have been alone. You're helping me. You've intervened. And of course, you also find, if we go back to the book of James and as I mentioned to you in the instruction that we are all familiar with here in James chapter 5, this is not simply a kind of a formula for healing. This is simply a description of how we can approach God, how we can subject ourselves to God and to God's Word. It says in verse 13, if anyone is suffering, well, then they should pray. If anyone's afflicted, well, then they ought to pray. And I guess that would include all of us. At times, we're all afflicted. It says that if anyone is cheerful, then they ought to sing songs of praise. And that is what we try to do. And we hope we do that, not only in joy and in appreciation and gratitude of what God has done for us, but we do that because our heart appreciates what God has done for us, how God has brought us to a point in our lives where we are able to benefit from His involvement in our lives.

And in verse 14, or any among you sick, they should call for the elders and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. And in verse 16, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. So that entire section kind of goes together. It does involve, in a sense, if we're afflicted to pray and ask God's relief, if we're happy, if we're cheerful, to sing for joy, if we're sick, we could be anointed, we could look to God in faith, we could ask for His healing. He says, confess our sins. I don't think it directly means that everything that's wrong with us or every sickness that we have has some direct connection to sin, although sometimes we kind of think that. Or maybe we think there are certain things we may have done that contribute that we could change, which might be the case. But I think it really is talking of an overview of being willing to confess our sins. Maybe that's what this woman was saying when she said the whole truth. She was telling Jesus everything, but she says, I know that I've come to the right source, I've come to the right place, you are the answer, you did already provide the answer to my request, which was to be healed. And so, he mentions confessing here in verse 16, and the fact that that provides some relief, I think, is also explained here by this woman's interaction with Jesus. We might also tie into this 1 John chapter 1, because even though this isn't directly talking about healing, it is talking about our relationship with God. It is talking about how we are to be close to God here in 1 John chapter 1. He says in verse 7, if we walk in the light as He's in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, cleanses us from all sins. And He says in verse 8, if we're not looking for our sins, if we're not looking for things that we could confess, things that we can acknowledge to God, limitations that we have, and problems that we create by our words or by our actions toward others, if we say that we have no sin, then we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we don't examine ourselves and take a look at ourselves, I'm sure that's what this woman was expressing, a certain amount of relief to say, you know, I've tried this, I've tried that, I've made this mistake, I've made that mistake. He goes on in verse 9, if you confess your sins, then He was faithful and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See, He ties that together with, you know, reaching out to Jesus for the healing that He is able to extend to us. So if we go back to Mark in concluding, you know, the section here that has this incident of this woman sneaking up behind Jesus and reaching out to Him and expressing belief and faith in Him, and then having Him respond in a remarkable way, not only healing her, but it says in verse 34, He said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your disease.

He added a little more to each one of these statements, and He expressed a little more understanding for us to gain. And actually, I think it's impressive when you look at verse 34 where He says, daughter, your faith has made you whole or well. You know, faith is clearly a part of when we come to God, when we reach out to God and ask for help, then we need to do that in faith. We need to do that believing that He will hear and believing that He can answer and that He can answer quickly or He may answer in a gradual or delayed way, but at least He will be aware of our request. He says, your faith has made you whole, but go in peace, go in comfort, go in relief, and be healed of your disease. So what we find about Jesus and about His concern for this woman who had sneaked up behind Him and grabbed His robe, and yet who had expressed faith in Him and had received the healing that she so desperately sought, He wasn't upset about that. He wasn't disturbed by the fact that power had gone forth and He wasn't directly looking at her.

What we find is that He spoke to her out of concern. He was not viewing her as unimportant or unclean or unacceptable. See, He didn't look at people that way. He didn't look at this woman that way. She had been a poor, unimportant sufferer with the trouble that had made her cast aside by others. Yet Jesus offered His attention and He expressed His concern and love for her in the words that He spoke. We don't have any more information about this. He went on and you can read the rest of the account and each of these Gospels and every one of them He's going on and going to heal the little girl that He had headed out to heal. But see, the type of concern, the type of love, the type of patience, the type of compassion, the type of tenderness that Jesus had toward her and with the words that He expressed, that's an example for us to emulate and to strive to have as we interact with one another and as we approach Him, even whenever we're in need, we want to try to learn the things that Jesus has had to say. So, to recap what it is that we mentioned here to begin with, you know, as we are sick or as we are praying for others, we want to reach out for help. We're told to ask and seek and knock. You know, don't ignore that.

That's a part of what we're supposed to do. That's clearly a part of what this woman wanted to do. She wanted to reach out and touch that garment. She wanted what He had to offer.

And of course, we want to come to God in faith, faith in the power of God. And again, as I mentioned, maybe we ought to determine what does seem to increase or grow or improve or help our faith and what might tear it down, what might discourage us. Because if we focus on the positives, focus on the things that build up our faith, then I think we'll find, you know, that God will, you know, be more merciful to us. He will honor our desire to draw close to Him in faith. And as I mentioned, you know, Jesus has a great deal of concern for human beings. And He clearly has a great deal of concern for those human beings who have been called to become His brothers and sisters, to become His family, to be glorified with Him in the Kingdom of God. You know, He's clearly concerned, even as He was concerned. He expressed a concern for this woman who had snuck up on Him, and yet, you know, all of us have a connection that, you know, that we ought to, I think, appreciate and cause to grow, cause to develop, so that we are able to receive the blessings and benefits from God. So this woman had found sympathy. She had found healing and pardon from Jesus Christ.

And this was prompted by her belief, having heard, having had a belief, and then having faith in who He was, in what He was able to do, and how He was able to help her. And I think all of us, you know, certainly want to have that same type of connection. We want to have that same type of approach to Jesus Christ as we request His help and His intervention in our aches and pains, and in the suffering that we do, even as this woman had, even for a long period of time.