faith

A Study on The Woman, pt. 2

/ Whitney / Leave a comment

I first wrote about The Woman with the Issue of Blood here. For summary’s sake, this story, as captured in Mark 5:25-341, is about a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years (I can’t even) and could not find a cure. One day, she sees Jesus walking by and reaches out to touch him, believing that touching Jesus will be enough to heal her, and no spoilers here, it was. She was healed instantaneously and instructed by Jesus to “Go in peace and be healed from [her] affliction.” Mk. 5:34.

It is interesting that Jesus told her, I call her “The Woman,” to be healed when she had already sensed that she was healed in her body. Verse 29 tells us that The Woman touches Jesus and “[i]nstantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.” If The Woman was already healed, why would Jesus then tell her to go in peace and be healed from her affliction (v. 34)? Because Jesus knows that our healing is both instantaneous and a process.

Think about it: if you break a bone to the point of needing surgical repair, you have the surgery and your bone is technically healed. But then it takes weeks or even months for you to be able to use that particular body party in the way God originally intended. I would also argue that the same principle applies to the inside. Forgiveness, releasing shame, guilt, bitterness, all of those things involve an instantaneous decision to let go of emotional hurt and continued work of rewiring our thinking to not fall back into the same emotional rut and need emotional surgery, let’s say. And while it’s been somewhat of a trend these days to talk about emotional healing and doing the work to heal ourselves, Jesus knew that this life would require that type of work and told us so over 2,000 years ago.

Having had this condition for the past twelve years, maybe now The Woman would have to present herself to the priest or rabbi to show herself as “clean.” (Leviticus 15:25-28). She was ostracized from her community. Now would come the hard work of rejoining her people, her family, as a healed and better person. Yes, she was healed instantaneously by Jesus, but there were practical, literal steps she had to take to walk fully in her healing. In this life, being bold enough to get to Jesus for healing, just like The Woman, is required and good for us. But it is also up to us to continue to take the practical steps to continue in emotional healing. That Jesus would give us the grace and stamina for instantaneous and continued healing. Amen.

1 This story also appears in Luke 8:43-48 and Matthew 9:20-22.

It’s Never Been Healing for Healing’s Sake

/ Whitney / Leave a comment

Why does the Lord heal us? Why does He answer our prayers? Why does He work out the difficulties in our lives when we ask Him to? (Even if His timing and way of working things out is different than what we had in mind)? I mean, yes, God is a loving father who cares for us, his children (1 John 3:1), but what’s it all for? These questions all came to my head the other day as I was reflecting on all the prayers the Lord has answered over the years of my life. And I asked myself what had I done with these blessings? The Lord has healed me from a lot of emotional pain in my life, and I am grateful. Thank you, Jesus. But to what end? What am I doing with my healing? Jesus’s blessings and healings certainly help create the full life that He promised for those who believe in Him (John 10:10 NIV), but surely these blessings and healings are not just healing for healing’s sake, right?

As I’ve been thinking about healing, I thought about an old Andrae Crouch song “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus.” Part of the lyrics are “He healed my body and told me to run on.” This life we live is indeed like running a race. The writer of Hebrews says “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Paul, in his letters to his mentee, Timothy, even says, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 7).

This race that we’re running together as followers of Jesus should be a relay, not an individual event. As followers of Jesus, our mission is to know Christ (Philippians 3:7-11) and to make him known (Matthew 28:19). We are healed and set free not just for our own ease and comfort and to just continue living our lives, but to allow us to then touch the lives of others and thereby further the cause of the Cross, the spreading of the Gospel. Our healing and answered prayers place us in a position to better help those around us and help spread the message of Jesus.

We can see this practice throughout scripture. Just look at the mother-in-law of Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples. When she encountered Jesus, she was sick with a fever, which I imagine may have been much more serious and life-threatening back then. Jesus touched her hand, and the fever dissipated. She immediately got up and began serving. (Matthew 8:14-15). Admittedly, we could have a whole discussion about the historical roles of women serving others at the expense of themselves–which is an important conversation–but I don’t want to detract from the focus here. The focus is that after being healed, Peter’s mother-in-law served Jesus. Jesus healed her and she got up and she began working to accommodate and amplify Jesus’s presence in Peter’s home. Also, let’s not overlook the fact that Jesus touched her hand to bring healing, a literal and figurative instrument of kingdom work in the Bible. (1 Corinthians 12:12-16).

Also, there were the two blind men who were on the side of the road and called out to Jesus for healing. (Matthew 20:29-34). Jesus heard their cries, had compassion on them, and healed them. Matthew then tells us “Immediately, they could see, and they followed him.” (Matt. 20:34). These men couldn’t see Jesus, but heard he was coming and they started shouting, I’m sure to the embarrassment of others. People told them to shut up, but they wouldn’t. (Matt. 20:31). Seeking Jesus and getting their healing was more important to them than anything else. I’m taking a little bit of creative license here, but can you imagine what kind of Christ-followers they were if they were shouting Jesus’s name before they got healed? Oh, from that day on, if you ran into those men, you were going to know about Jesus, you could bet on that. The two men didn’t receive their sight and just go off back to their homes. They were healed and they followed Jesus and made him known.

Whether we’ve experienced mental, physical, or emotional healing, we should arise, run on, and help and serve others and tell them about Jesus. I take this as a personal challenge because it’s not always comfortable or convenient to do those things. But may the reality of our answered prayers and healings and our faith in Jesus, compel us forward.

God: the Author of Freedom

/ Whitney / Leave a comment

God is many things: a Father, provider, a best friend. But my favorite role of God? Author. Hear me out. As a writer, I respect God’s frequent and poignant use of foreshadow in his drafting of the 66-book-long story of his love for us. In drafting the Greatest Love Story Every Told (that of the salvation of his people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus), God used the story of Joseph in the Old Testament (Genesis 37, 38-45-ish) to foreshadow the story of Jesus in the New Testament. And this matters because the story of Jesus, in essence, foreshadows the story of our lives. Foreshadowing is a literary device used to give an indication or hint of what is to come later in the story. And by diving into the pages of the Old Testament, we see a glimpse of what is to come in our own lives. I’ll explain.

Joseph was born one of the youngest of twelve brothers, and the favorite of his father Jacob. (Genesis 37:3). Joseph was hated by his jealous brothers, so much so, that they threw him into a pit and told their father that Joseph died. (Gen 37:4, 18-36). During Joseph’s “death,” he became an Egyptian slave, but then eventually came to serve the Captain of the Guard of Egypt. (Gen 39:1-6). Joseph had various (mis)adventures while in Egypt such as being promoted to the Captain’s righthand man, then being falsely accused of attempted rape by said Captain’s wife, and subsequent imprisonment, prescient dream interpretation for Pharaoh, and ultimately becoming second in command of Egypt. (Gen 41:37-42). In a long story made very short, Joseph’s brothers had to eventually beg him for food to survive, not even recognizing him as their brother. (Gen 42:1-8). Joseph ultimately revealed himself, was “resurrected,” and became the savior of his family, essentially providing them food and warding off their death due to the famine that was gripping the land. (Gen 42-46ish). Joseph’s resurrection saved his brothers once they realized who he really was.

In the same way, Jesus, his father’s favorite, was hated by his jealous brothers–think Sadducees and Pharisees, (Matthew 12:9-14, and honestly so much of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and they plotted to and did ultimately kill Jesus. (Matt 26:57-27:55). Though now, Jesus’ resurrection is literal, not figurative, and Jesus defeats death and brings salvation for those who realize who He really is and believe in Him as the One who saved them. (I’m just gonna cite the whole New Testament here).

As storyteller, God is undefeated. Not only does the life of Joseph point to the life of Jesus, but the life of Jesus points to our lives as believers. When we believe in Jesus, we become new people. (2 Corinth 5:17). When we believe in Jesus, we are equipped with the power to live a free life, not one that is bound and chained to the people we used to be or the things we used to do. God starts with Joseph, but ends with our future. When we believe in Jesus, we are resurrected, like Joseph and like Jesus. We are made new. If we lied incessantly before coming to Jesus, we don’t have to do that anymore; we can be free from that through the power of Jesus. If we were addicted to any of the things that try to compete for our attention and affection (from the oft-overlooked things like shopping, emotional eating, watching too much tv–I’m talking to myself here, to the more often maligned things like sex, drugs, and alcohol), whatever has a hold on us and makes us feel like we can’t cope without it, we can be free of it through the power given to us by believing in Jesus.

And God knew this potential freedom from the beginning, penning His power to make us new creations in Him, first through the story of Joseph, and then through the life of Jesus. Like any great literary work, the Bible artfully tells the story, but what we get from it, is completely up to us. But may I humbly suggest that the stories of Joseph and Jesus point us back to God, and his power to heal and set free through his Son. Now, it is up to us to choose our own adventure.

A Nugget of Truth

/ Whitney / Leave a comment

For Jesus followers, the sole objective of moving through suffering is not for God to deliver us out of the suffering, but to know Him while we are in it.

There is something about suffering that draws us close to the Lord. Maybe it’s the fact that the situation is beyond our control. Maybe it’s the fact that the situation is too much for us to comprehend or even begin to wrap our minds around. Either way, it’s become clear to me that in enduring, in going through hard times, Jesus wants us to know Him. Our enduring isn’t solely about being able to “come out on the other side,” or talk about how Jesus delivered us from a situation, though these things are equally important. But what often gets overlooked, particularly by me in this instance, is that suffering creates a particular intimacy with God that is hard to achieve otherwise. Should we have to struggle each day of our lives? No. But there will be struggle in our lives (John 16:33), so when the occasions do arise, we can turn what may feel like a crucible into a time of communion with our God. It may be an unpopular truth, but it’s time-tested: “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.” Psalm 119:17 (NLT). Also, “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.” 1 Peter 5:10 (NLT).

For me, turning to God in hard times means opening up my Bible. And when I delve into the Bible, whether listening to it in my car, or reading its pages in stolen (and planned) moments in the morning or throughout the day, I’m reminded that His Word works.1 In the Bible, I see the Lord’s patience, his kindness, his goodness, and his care for his creation. In the Bible, I get wisdom and peace to face each new day. In reading the Bible I am reassured that Jesus cares for me (1 Peter 5:7), that He is concerned about my life (Psalm 138:8 (NKJV)) , and that He will lead and guide me as I continue to ask for direction (Psalm 32:8 (NLT)). And these truths give me reassurance and confidence that it will all be okay. I may not know what the end of my situation will be, but I have Jesus, and so I know it will be all right.

  1. Which is also the title of this really powerful sermon I heard Memorial Day Weekend. ↩︎

A Study on the Woman with the Issue of Blood

/ Whitney / 2 Comments

Mark 5:21-34

Can you imagine bleeding for 12 straight years? That’s 4,380 days of a non-stop menstrual cycle. Can you just imagine? Recently, I came across the Bible story of the woman who had this exact issue. “The Woman with the Issue of Blood,” as she is commonly known.

As a short recap, this unnamed woman (we’ll call her “The Woman” for short) had been bleeding for 12 years without stopping. She had spent all of her money on treatments to stop the bleeding, but nothing had worked, and the book of Mark tells us that at the point that she encounters Jesus, she had actually gotten worse, not better. (Mark 5:26). As Jesus is passing through an area where she is, surrounded by a crowd, she presses her way through the crowd, believing he can heal her. But she doesn’t confront him or ask him directly for healing. She reaches out only to touch him, believing that just touching Jesus’ clothes will be enough to heal her illness, even if Jesus doesn’t directly speak to her or even know of her. (Mark 5:27-28). So she touches his clothes, and instantly feels healing in her body. (Mark 5:29). Jesus, despite being surrounded by people, feels the healing power leave him and, somewhat ironically, asks “who touched me?” (Mark 5:30). After some confusion, The Woman eventually comes forward and confesses to Jesus that she touched him, and in response, instead of berating her, he tells her that her faith has healed her and that she can go in peace. (Mark 5:32-34).

So many thoughts came up as I was reading this story. First, I’ll start with my thoughts about the concept of intention. This scripture passage tells us that a “large crowd was following [Jesus] and pressing against him.” (Mark 5:24). People were crowding Jesus and were pressing against him, yet when The Woman touched him, he instantly sensed that power had left his body. (Mark 5:30). What was the difference between this woman’s touch and everyone else’s? Her intention. This woman reached out to touch Jesus, believing she could be healed. She believed that Jesus could heal her, and she reached out with the intention of grabbing some of that healing power for herself. It was almost like theft by faith, if that can be considered a thing– but more on that later.

The spirit of intention that weaves itself throughout The Woman’s story can be lifted from the pages of the Bible and neatly transposed onto our own lives. Like The Woman, we hurt, we suffer, we struggle through problems and issues, some of which plague us for a long time. We may not always choose the best course of action in trying to handle our problems. I know The Woman can’t be the only person who has thrown money at solutions that simply did not work. Even her approach to Jesus might be considered a little “off.” I mean, she really tried to steal his healing power. But Jesus saw her heart; he saw the intention behind her actions. And he saw her faith. She knew that Jesus was the solution and was willing to do anything to get to him and access his power. Likewise, Jesus knows our hearts and sees our intentions. When we seek him earnestly, and believe in his power, just like The Woman, he can feel it, immediately. And when Jesus does touch our hearts, they are healed, and we can go forward in peace, just like The Woman. When we approach life’s situations with an earnest desire for Jesus’ help and healing power, he notices. He picks up on our heart’s intention and our yearning for him, and allows his power to flow through us to heal us and help us live this life, for his glory. Thank you, God, for the ability to reach out to your son Jesus and receive his holy, healing power. Amen.