Fighting Your Way Through the Crowd to Touch the Lord (9.8.17)

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She 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. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, If I can 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. 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 ask, Who touched me?  But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering - Mark 5:24-34

Faith Believers,
The woman in this story perfectly describes this principle of prayer.

She was desperate for a touch from the Lord and she knew "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Have you ever thought about how difficult it must have been for this woman, most likely weak from bleeding for so many years, to fight her way through the crowd to touch the Lord?

There were so many people in the crowd that when Jesus asked his disciples who had touched Him, they basically said, “Are you kidding? There are too many people around you to tell you that!" Yet this woman didn’t let anyone or anything stop her because she knew how to receive her much-needed healing!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pictured myself fighting my way
     through a crowd to touch Jesus during a particular time in my life.

I often declare, 'Lord, I am pushing through this crowd of fear, lack of faith, bitterness, or whatever is hindering me from receiving from GOD what I need and I am claiming the victory! I am clinging to you, and no one or nothing will stand in my way!'

When was the last time you fought your way through the crowd to touch the Lord?

~ Prayer ~
Lord Jesus,
I long to get to a place in my life where I am
    so thirsty for you that nothing else matters -
    not my fear, circumstances, pain or even
    the other people that share my life.

When I am filled with joy and peace, may I still long
     for Your holy, grace-filled touch.

May I be so filled with faith that I will always trust
    in Your desire to move powerfully in my life;
    as I place my full trust in You.

Father, please make me desperate for more
    of Your Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

Amen