Key scripture – “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering” (Mark 5:34).

Have you ever felt embarrassed about a current problem you are having or about something in your past? Let me tell you about a woman in the Bible who took a risk to receive healing from an embarrassing “issue” that she had that caused her to be an outcast and live in shame and humiliation. Like us, she had tried everything on her own to get her problem taken care of but nothing had worked.

This woman had a physical issue, that was getting worse. She had been bleeding for twelve years, she had suffered a great deal, and she had spent all of her money on doctors, but instead of getting better she grew worse. (Mark 5: 25-26). The laws of her day left her living with a condition that appalled and disgusted “normal” people, so she lived as an outcast — shunned, avoided by other people, and alone in her suffering.

Mark 5:24, it says that when Jesus was on the way to heal the sick daughter of a synagogue leader, a large crowd was following Him and pressing in around Him. The Bible says this woman heard about Jesus going through the towns and villages “healing every kind of disease and sickness.” (Matthew 9:35). In fact, she surely had heard the news that Jesus was going to be passing through her area. So despite the crowds, the woman with the “issue” went to find Jesus. She didn’t know if people would recognize her and recoil, or if they would warn Jesus about her before she could get close enough to see Him. But she risked all of that to go to Him.

When she got close to Jesus, even though she was scared, she had such a strong faith that Jesus could heal her she reached out to touch Jesus’ cloak. “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.” (Mark 5:27-29). And Jesus immediately responded to her touching Him. “At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.” (Mark 5: 30-32). Jesus knew this was not a random touch like you experience when you are in a crowded area and a lot of people are around you. No, He knew someone had reached out in faith and touched Him.

Not knowing what Jesus would say, this woman had came to Him anyway. At this point, she was so scared she was trembling with fear, because she knew that she was an outcast and she did not know how Jesus would take having been touched by an outcast. “Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.” (Mark 5:33). When the woman in this story reached out in faith to Jesus, she was healed immediately, and then she heard the words from Jesus that freed her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:34).

We can all relate to this woman because we sin and we feel like outcasts, full of shame and humiliation, but when we reach out to Jesus in faith, like the woman in this story, Jesus says to each one of us, “Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Do you feel like this woman, filthy or rejected? Are you stuck in shame, fear or feelings of unworthiness?

Every one of us has an “issue” that needs Jesus’ healing touch. Will you go to Jesus in faith and let Him set you free?

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, I thank You that I have been set free and no matter what the problem is: health, emotional, family, financial, shame, fear, humiliation, and all other sins, Jesus can and does heal everything. As a Christian, I am free and I am going to live like it, because Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). You have not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1). Thank You for the healing power of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and the abundant life that I have through Him. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.