Mark 5:22-43 (Matthew 9:18-26, Luke 8:41-56)

^{… 25}And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." ²⁹Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

³²But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

“When she heard about Jesus …”

Personally, I’m one of those people who is fascinated by home-remedies and new kinds of treatments. Perhaps that’s because I’m easily bored. Or maybe it’s because I’m very curious. For whatever the reason, I’ve read about all kinds of treatments and cures and tried a great many. I’ve also talked relatives of mine into trying some of my more successful cures … although not with a lot of success … I guess I’m just not really gifted in a Louis Pasteur kind of way.

When my husband was first diagnosed with melanoma cancer, we were inundated with all kinds of cures. After the doctors removed the tumor on his neck, they started us on a new treatment called “interferon” via a pic-line in his left arm. That lasted for a week before his vein got infected and they had to remove nine inches of the vein in an emergency surgery.

Nevertheless, the next year they removed a golf ball sized tumor from his head. A month later he went through a month’s worth of radiation to his head. Then an old friend sent us a year’s worth of vitamins and another friend sent us a year’s worth of tea that is supposed to restore your blood cells health and ability to fight off cancer.

My husband could easily have said that he “had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all (he) had, yet instead of getting better “he” grew worse.”

The difference was Jesus. You see, he had “heard about Jesus” so from the beginning he turned to God and what a difference it made. Although we did spend some money traveling to and from places, God arranged for friends to provide some things we needed. Although we did do some of the things the doctors suggested we didn’t do them all. When one of the doctors suggested radiating his neck, we prayed about it and had NO peace and just opted out … guess what? Later we were told that was a good move. After his brain tumor was removed, his doctor suggested we go to MD Anderson for a bone marrow transplant. Again we felt NO peace, so we got a second opinion and that doctor suggested we just wait and see what God would do. He was right!

It may be that God will call you to go through some really painful times. I have a dear friend whose wife was taken home to heaven. God used breast cancer to do that. But his family experienced great peace in knowing that God was in charge. (They suffered. They cried. They felt like they had died. But they had “heard about Jesus” so they trusted and God proved faithful.)

I want to encourage you today to make it a point to learn more about Jesus. “Don’t be afraid … just believe.” He can do anything because “Nothing is impossible with the Lord!”