Reach out and grab on.

We often underestimate the power that dwells among Jesus Christ. We feel as though our problems and shortcomings are a nuisance to Him, and lack any significance for Him to reach down and liberate us. But do you know what’s remarkable? Our problems are real to Him. He sees them, and more importantly, He feels them as if they were His own. What’s even more astounding is that no matter how deep of a pit we find ourselves in, no matter how many wrong turns we make, and no matter how far we stray – our setbacks will never knock Jesus off of His throne; He won’t even budge. He’s still King, still sovereign, and still faithful. He’s a God who comes in response to our suffering. But first, we have to reach for Him – in faith.

Let’s read a passage out of Mark 5 to fully grasp this concept:

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 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 can 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.”

As Christians, it’s easy to place expectations on our King. We expect Him to provide. We expect Him to console us. We expect Him to pull us out of the pit. Don’t get me wrong, these are all valid expectations, because these are all features that accurately depict the character of Jesus Christ. But here is where we get off track: we expect these things, yet we don’t budge. We impatiently wait for Him to come through for us, and get annoyed when He doesn’t do so on our time table. It’s important to notice that the hemorrhaging woman didn’t miserably sit in her pitiful condition and wait for Jesus to come to her. She reached out and grabbed on to His cloak because she was determined to be healed. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus was pleased by her initiative. Yes, Jesus could have walked over to her and healed her without a problem - this point is proven throughout all of Scripture as Jesus’ miracles are documented countlessly. But He commended the woman who reached out for Him, because she knew that Jesus, and only Jesus, had the power to restore her. And that He did; He didn’t leave her out to dry. He brought the healing that she was desperately grasping for.

Reach out and grab on. It won’t go unnoticed. And you won’t go unhealed.