[Lent 2020 Devotion] Mar. 16th, 2020 & Prayer Video

[Lent 2020 Devotion] Mar. 16th, 2020 & Prayer Video

Scripture: Mark 5:21-43 (CEB)

21 Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. 22 Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.

A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. 25 A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. 28 She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. 29 Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.

30 At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

31 His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.

33 The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. 34 He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”

35 While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”

36 But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.” 37 He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. 38 They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.” 40 They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. 41 Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.” 42 Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked! 43 He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat.

What does this passage mean to me/us?

Contributed by Rich McGimsey

And when he found the woman who had touched him.
34 “Jesus said to her, Daughter, you took a risk of Faith, and now you’re healed and whole.
Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague”

When Jesus says to the woman, “you took a risk of faith” it reminded me of a Bible study Ellen and I were in when we first joined the Church. It was a study by Henry Blackaby. The main component that has always stuck with me is “when God invites you to join Him in his work, When the assignment or problem is God-sized. You will quickly realize you cannot do what He is asking on your own. If God doesn’t help you, you will fail. This is the crisis of belief when you must decide whether to believe God for what He wants to do through you.” (“Experiencing God”).

You put all your trust and belief in God and take the next step. The woman had such a determined belief in who Jesus was and that her miracle would never happen if not for him. And we have these wonderful words from Jesus for all of us who do the same  “ Live well, live blessed”

Prayer

Dear heavenly Father, we give thanks for the unbelievable gift of love and grace you gave to us. We pray that we love you with all our hearts and live our lives giving back this love and grace to others for the transformation of the world. Through Christ your son, Amen

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