Joel Littlefield

At Your End

‌Three of the four gospel accounts introduce us to the woman with a twelve year issue of bleeding. God put it in the Bible three times. It must be an important story.

Tired of a life cut off from society, she pressed through the crowd. She pressed toward Jesus. She was at the end of her rope, and realizing the futility of trusting in the world. It did not have the solution to her pain and suffering. If she could get to Him, she knew that it would be better than all her previous efforts. This is the right way to think when you’re at the end of your rope. If I could just get to Jesus.

Jesus Can Do What Nothing Else Can

The news of Jesus’s power was spreading.

“And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.” (Luke 6:18-19)

This encounter was no accident. She was looking for Him. He undoubtedly knew she was coming. Today she would meet her last and final Physician. If we could see the list of everything she tried over the last twelve years; the doctors, the advice from friends, the medicine, and all the money spent, I’m sure it would me an impressive list. What I find to be most impressive, though, is that should we end up with a list a mile long of ways we might find peace, Jesus is better than all of them.

May the Lord spare you of a long list.

When Faith Meets God’s Power

Jesus stopped to talk to her. He was violating the prevailing interpretation of the law which said to stay clear (Lev 15:25). According to them, He should have avoided her. Instead, He praised her for the faith. He talked to her. He loved her.

The moment she touched Him, power left Him. “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9)

The Bible makes a connection between the power of God and our personal faith in Him. Nobody can know exactly how this works, but God chooses to use means to accomplish His sovereign and pre-written ends. When faith in all else had been exhausted, she pushed through the crowd, touched the hem of his robe, and the blood that was flowing completely dried up.

We often want to see the power of God, but are unwilling to trust with the kind of faith that takes risks. True faith is willing to be embarrassed and humiliated, like a woman crawling through the dusty streets of Capernaum because she knows (really trusts) that even His hem is enough for her. Because of her faith, she witnessed His power in Her life. Because of the grace of God for His lost sheep, this precious sheep was found.

Go In Peace, Child

We have to assume that the rest of her life was not all roses and sunshine. That’s not how life works in a fallen world, and the Gospel makes no promise of this. Instead, the one who believes in Christ is assured of a new identity; a completely new life that is free from the penalty of sin. Consider the parting words of Jesus to this woman, and how they would forever be her reminder that, come what may, everything will be alright.

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Even the hem of His garment is enough, but thanks be to God that He has given you so much more than that in order to make you His own.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

May your faith, big or small, be directed toward the power of Jesus today. When you come to the end of a rope, see it as a mercy from God. He’s showing you a better way. Christ alone is sufficient.