“If You make me clean, I will be clean. If You make me whole, I will be whole. If You make me Yours, I will be Yours and I won’t run anymore…” @coreyvoss
Saturday night as the retreat I was at ended, this song came on over my church’s sound system. And I realized that each of its four parts had written down four different cries of my heart.
Which are echoed through the Word – being made clean, and being made whole – as Jesus showed us how much He loves to do both.
The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak was instantly made clean as His power healed her, after 12 years of suffering from a bleeding disorder.
But that wasn’t enough for Jesus.
In those days, a woman was segregated from the rest of the family while she had her monthly cycle. If it didn’t stop, she could have been outcast from her home. It is clear in the Word that the local healers and doctors didn’t have any success, yet they took her money anyways.
When this hurting woman heard about the miracles Jesus had performed, and that He was nearby, I can only imagine how her heart skipped a beat as she decided to do something very much out of character for an unclean woman in her day.
She made her way through the crowd, and touched His hem without Him seeing it.
And was healed instantly.
Yet, Jesus immediately stopped, and asked the crowd who had touched Him. Because this aspect of her healing could only happen publicly.
This woman came forward, likely with much trembling and fear, and admitted what she had done.
And Jesus, by making this public, not only restored the woman’s place in the community, He commended her faith.
Jesus showed that He cared about her as a whole person, not just one who had a chronic illness. For He knew her true identity was a child of God!
And so are we, friend! He longs to clean each of us and make us whole again too!
(You can read this story in Matthew 9:20–22, Mark 5:25–34, and Luke 8:43–48.)
#trueidentity #hopefortheharddays
KARLA LEES 