Defeating the Impossible

When I think of a desperate person, I think of someone on the street desperate for food or someone desperate to create a better life for them self – like a refugee leaving the dangers of their own land. But in reality, everyday people like me can feel desperate. We can be desperate for a partner, desperate for a job or like me, desperate to have a baby. I’m sure there are many desperate people in the bible but one specifically comes to my mind. It is the woman with the issue of blood. She touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and because of her faith, was immediately healed of her condition.

Mark 5:25-34. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”

But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

Just think about this woman’s plight – she was constantly bleeding for 12 years! This condition must have caused so many implications for her. She was greatly hindered in everyday life and probably wasn’t able to socialise normally. It also cost her everything she had. No wonder she was desperate. Then when Jesus came to town she thought, “If I could just touch His robe.” Wow. The amazing thing is that she was healed after many failed attempts through doctors, she was healed immediately and Jesus commended her for her faith. The woman is unnamed however she has gone done in history as someone with amazing faith and someone that overcame her 12 years of suffering through her faith in Jesus.

I can relate to this woman. I too have spent money on the  health professionals/doctors in my plight to become a mother. I too have suffered. I too have been in pain. This story encourages me in my journey through infertility because even after everything – nothing is impossible. Jesus can heal me. I hope and pray He will.

I hope this encourages you and reminds you that even though you may be feeling desperate in your personal situation, nothing is impossible through Him. He makes a way for us through the wilderness and brings forth rivers in the desert.

Luke 1:36-38, “And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”

Here's to another month of hoping ;)