Do you have faith like that?

The account of the woman with the issue of blood is recorded in all 3 of the gospels. Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-48. I'm going to use Mark and Luke since there isn't too much about it in Matthew. Let's look at Mark first.

Check out what Mark 5:25-34 says. Yes, that means go read it. Or don't. Your choice. But remember, as always, I have it in NIV, but you can change it to whatever you wanna read it in. Then read it in Luke 8:43-48.

Here we have this woman who was suffering from a medical issue and the doctors couldn't figure out what to do with her. She had heard about Jesus and thought, man this guy heals so many people. If I just touch his cloak as he walks by, I know that I'll be healed. So, as he walks by a crowd gathers and she finds herself pushing through to get close to where he was. She touched his cloak and boom healed. She felt it. But so did Jesus. He instantly knew that someone touched him and wanted to know who it was. Here Jesus is in the midst of a large crowd of people but he noticed that ONE PERSON touched him. His disciples, per usual, kinda challenge the statement. There are lots of people here, obviously, someone touched you. But Jesus felt power leave him. He felt someone touch him, not give him a high five. It was different. When he asked the woman came to Jesus, knowing that she wouldn't go unnoticed, she told him what happened. And Jesus replied, "Daughter, your faith has healed you, go in peace."

So that takes both portions of scripture and puts them in a little package for you. I know that a lot of times we want people to see the Christ in us. Proverbs 27:19 talks about the water reflecting the face, and their life reflects their soul. So, of course, everything we do reflects our heart posture. Scary huh! For me it is. We want people to be able to see that we love our God and we want to be obedient to his will for us. But this story hit me this morning. Yes, I still want people to see the Christ in me. But I want to have that level of faith.

She touched his clothes and pulled power from him because of her faith. I want to have that kinda faith. I want to be able to see the opportunities provided by God and not be fearful of what others will say because of the faith that I have in Christ. There is so much more in that portion of scripture, but I want you guys to really think about your faith level today. Sometimes it takes more faith to be obedient to what God's word tells us than we think. I was listening to the radio and head a song that said lay down your good to get your best. That's hard! We want to hold onto things so tightly that we aren't willing to see what God has for us that could be better.