Keep Pressing & Believing
“Keep pressing - Don’t give up no matter how hard the crowd presses in around you. When you seek Him with your whole heart He will be found. Take heart and be of good courage.” These words felt like a balm to my soul and encouragement to my heart. It was an afternoon when my faith felt weak and healing so far out of reach that I did not even know if I could believe for it anymore. I felt the weariness of a lifetime of waiting paired with an increase in faith that made no sense. The Lord brought me to the story in the Bible of the woman healed of her twelve-year sickness and I was left undone.
Faith
The lady in the bible with the issues of blood, had come to the end of everything (Matt. 9, Mark 5 & Luke 8). She had no community, no more finances, and no more options. She had trusted herself with the physicians of her time yet she was not getting better she was getting worse. She believed that if she could only touch His garment it would be enough to heal her. She pressed through the crowds, risking everything including the life she was trying to preserve.
She didn't yell or scream her way to Jesus, she pushed forward. She found herself pushing against the crowd.
Can you picture it?
Depleted of energy, hope long deferred, defeated around every corner, yet she pressed forward with great pursuit, she leaned forward in faith. She gets knocked down by the crowd and while this initially brings more agony to her heart and soul, but then she looks up. This vantage point offers her a different perspective. She sees the crowd differently and sees a path to Jesus. She is used to being unseen by the crowds so she crawls, unseen, toward the feet of Jesus. Getting to Him just in time to touch the hem of His robe before He moves on.
Was He lingering with intention? He was not calling out to her but could it be that He was waiting? He knew the minute power left Him. He stopped.
To Jairus, the man whose house they were headed to in order to heal his dying daughter, this must have been agony. His daughter was dying, they were in a hurry. Yet Jesus never seems to be in a hurry, this time is no different. He paused, He found the woman.
Healer
She knows for the first time in over a decade, and possibly the first time in her whole life, she is healed. No more hiding, no more unknowns, she was met physically and spiritually by the Healer and she would never be the same. Her faith kept her pursuing Him and out of it, He made her well. He made her whole. It wasn't a word from Jesus that healed her, but an action of pursuit and faith.
Jairus, who is watching, taking it all in, hears Jesus tell the woman, “Your faith has made you well.” Seeds must have been planted in his heart and mind. Faith in his own heart had the opportunity to grow and strengthen. This man can heal. Then news comes that his daughter has died. This blow must have been devastating, questions must have been on the brink of erupting out of his heart and mouth. But then Jesus looks at him, with eyes of fire that pierce the soul and speak directly to the heart. “Do not fear, only believe…” Jauris had just witnessed Jesus heal a woman because of her faith and by the fringe of His garment. We combat fear by standing in awe.
Divine Connection
What if our pursuit of Jesus, what if our pressing through the crowd for just a touch of his garment is not only for us but will leave others around us undone and their faith built up? The great pursuit of Jesus, and the miracles He offers, is never just for one person but for His church as a whole. He sees us individually through the crowds and yet orchestrates divine connections of people to bring about His will.
The Woman
For those who feel they are the “woman”, your suffering has been long and exhausting. Yet take heart, you have not been forgotten. Keep pressing forward. Keep pushing through the crowd. Do not lose faith but keep strengthening yourself in the Lord during this pursuit.
Today my prayer for you is, that your faith will rise, your pressing will increase and the lie of the enemy who wants to remind you of all the other things you have tried yet failed, and all the other times you have hoped and it fell short. That today that voice will be silenced in Jesus' name. I pray for perseverance over your body, heart, mind, and will. That today when you press through the crowd, you will be met with the hem of the Healer.
Jairus
For those who feel the pull of Jauris. Something outside of your control is happening acutely and if Jesus does not show up it will die. The delay you feel is not forever. Could it be that God is building up faith in you? That you are not only waiting on Jesus but you are also about to have a divine encounter with someone whose story and faith will build your faith?
My prayer for you today is that your heart will not be troubled by what your physical eyes see but that you will have strengthened faith and hope in what is unseen. That you will not be offended by, what seems to be the delay of Jesus and your heart will be open and not jealous when you see others' "miracle" happen before yours. With a tender heart, you will allow God to remind you who He is and this will encourage you and build your faith. So when Jesus looks at you and says, “Do not fear only believe.” Your faith will answer with all your heart, “I believe.”
Invitation
There is an open invitation to believe in Him and a great calling to pursue. Almost like an invitation to a great adventure, yet the option is always ours. We combat fear by standing in awe, and we combat discouragement by standing in faith.