“Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and 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. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” (Luke 8:43-48)

“Without belief, we would be left with nothing but an overwhelming doom, every single day. And it will beat you. I didn’t fully see, until the cancer, how we fight every day against the creeping negatives of the world, how we struggle daily against the slow lapping of cynicism. Dispiritedness and disappointment, these were the real perils of life, not some sudden illness or cataclysmic millennium doomsday. I knew now why people fear cancer: because it is a slow and inevitable death, it is the very definition of cynicism and loss of spirit. So, I believed.” (Lance Armstrong, It’s Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life)

Have you noticed that those who have the strongest faith seem to lack fear, fear of the trials and tribulations of this life? The woman with the bleeding disorder had tried everything that she could think of, physicians and all of their medicines, and she still was not cured. Finally, in an act of faith, she comes to see Jesus, with the faith that even if she just touches his cloak, she might receive the same type of miraculous healing that she has obviously witnessed in others. It was not fear that drove her to Jesus, it was her faith.

Oh she does have fear, but it is a fear that she experiences in the reaction that she might be found out. She should not have been at the Temple, for she was forbidden, an outsider, because of her disease. Still her faith propelled her to come to Jesus, even if, as she feared, she would be discovered. Can we get past the fear and allow our faith to lead us on in service to the one who continues to astound us each and every day?

Pastor Dave