The Access of “Touch”

It is beyond my understanding how we can just touch a screen and things happen. With the technology of today, I can touch a number and a call is initiated. I can type out a text, with my index finger (because I’m old and I just can’t do the thumb thing), and hit “send,” and a person gets a message from me on their phone! Mind blowing.

It is also beyond my understanding the access I have to Jesus. All I have to do is reach out to Him in prayer and immediately He hears. I base this faith from some scripture I have been studying lately in Mark 5:24-34. There is the account of a “bloody woman.” For 12 years, she had a “flow of blood.” In medical terms we would call this menorrhagia, and we would, hopefully long before 12 years, call our gynecologist and get this taken care of. But she did not have this option. Oh, she tried physicians, “and had suffered many things” due to their inability to heal her based on the modern medicine of that day.

She had a plan, and she didn’t have long to think about it. She heard Jesus was coming through her area, and she had faith in Him. So much faith that she thought “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Just touch and have access. Access to the healing of her anemic body and soul. And she was right, and was made right, through the power of Christ.

“If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

Touch technology access may be a relatively new and amazing thing, but it is not as powerful as the touch access we have to Jesus. There are times when I touch my screen and nothing happens. I try again and again and sometimes with profoundly hard touches, and then the screen freezes. Jesus never freezes. He responds, and we can count on that. He gets the message immediately, and He will hold you until He answers. Sometimes it will be immediate, sometimes not, but we have to remember that He always hears immediately. Sometimes we need to ask ourselves if the waiting time is God’s goodness to prepare us for His answer.

The account goes on to say, “Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.” There’s something extra He did. He called her out to confess what had happened. When we reach for and connect with Jesus, He may call us out. He may ask us to leave our comfort zones, to testify of His goodness and risk the consequences. We might have to do a few things “in fear and trembling.” Because it is the least we can do for the great mercy He has shown to us.

“Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.”

Touch works both ways – the person who touches and the person who is touched. Both have a response to give. This is how good news spreads. How others get helped. If we know how Jesus helped us and we keep it to ourselves, we miss an opportunity to grow spiritually and help others know where to go for the help we are truly unable to give. The help and healing that can only come through a relationship with the lover of our souls.

Jesus gave her the most beautiful reward for her obedience in telling Him “the whole truth.” He says: “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

How are we made well? Where do we find peace and healing? It depends on what the problem is. If it is physical, we have physicians and procedures that are amazing. With today’s technology, surgeons can fix something inside of bodies barely leaving a mark on the outside. But if the problem is with the soul, only Jesus can help.

Risk the throng, like this women did, reach out in faith and you will find Him reaching out to you.

Heavenly Father, I have hurts right now that only you can feel, because You tell me in Your Word that you have been touched with the feelings of my infirmities. I have wounds that only You can cleanse, and dress and completely heal. I reach out to you like this “bloody woman” because I am consumed by my lack of ability to fix my own problems. Thank you for hearing and holding and giving hope. For the glory of Your Name, Amen