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March 18, 2005

Word of the Day by: Annette Edwards David Reaching without Arms

When we need to reach something, we usually extend our arm until the "something" we are reaching for is touched with our hands. Reaching in this manner is what our human mind comprehends. We understand how we see something with our eyes and determine if it is within our reach before we extend an arm to grab hold of it. Perhaps that is what makes touching Jesus seem so impossible. We cannot see Him with our human eyes or touch him with our physical Arm, however, He is not untouchable or unreachable. In the 5th chapter of Mark, you can read about a woman who was afflicted with an issue of blood for 12 years. Because of the custom of her day, she was rendered unclean until the issue of blood was passed. Being unclean required her to be separated from people, including her family and friends. She had been alone for 12 years. She had spent all that she had and suffered many things at the hand of physicians but nothing worked. She was at the point of hopelessness. Then she heard about Jesus. Great crowds were crowded around Jesus, following Him, asking Him for miracles. To reach Him she had to risk her life by pressing through the multitudes. She knew that if anyone recognized her, they would have her killed for subjecting them to her unclean state, but she said to herself, "If I may touch but His clothes, I will be made whole." She pressed through the crowds and even though many, many people were surrounding Jesus, grabbing at His clothes, begging for Him to do some miracle for them, when she touched the hem of His garment He immediately knew that something had happened. "Who touched me?" He asked. The disciples laughed at this question, telling Him that there were many people touching Him. But Jesus knew that someone had touched Him differently than with their physical bodies. Someone had touched Him with "FAITH". She did not have to come to Him asking for her healing as the others were doing. He didn't have to do anything. He was there, but her healing wasn't dependent upon Jesus performing any action for He knew not that the woman was there. It was her great faith that made her whole and that pulled the virtue from the Savior. Jesus felt the virtue come out of Him when the woman touched Him in faith. We have unlimited reaching power to a Savior who is as near as we allow Him to be. In the book of Acts, Chapter 17 Paul describes it this way: "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:" He may not be within view with our physical eyes, but if we exercise our faith in our spiritual minds, a Savior who may seem very far away in the natural is close enough to touch, even within us by the presence of the Holy Spirit living within us. When the woman confessed to Him that she was the one who touched Him, fearing that she would be punished for touching Him in her "unclean" state, Jesus said to her: "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. Thy FAITH has made thee whole." The healing was there. The miracles are there. All that is needed is our faith to reach out and grab them. Hebrews Chapter 11 is known as the faith chapter. It begins like this: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Verse 3 tells us this: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." How was the worlds made? Not with anything that these eyes can see, but by the WORD of God. Something that is unseen. The verse goes on to say, "so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." When we look at the trees, the fields, the streams, and the other things of this world, we need to remember they were not made of anything that our eyes can see, but by the unseen Word of God. That is faith. Believing in the Word of God and standing upon all the promises therein. Hebrews 11: 16 says: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Are we among the multitudes of people that were surrounding Jesus trying to grab something from him by our own phsycal reaching power? Or are we risking it all, knowing that our only hope is in Jesus and no matter what it costs, we must seek to touch Him, and reaching out in faith for our answer?

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