Note: This month, we'll begin a new series of For Your Soul columns, based on Keri Wyatt Kent's devotional book Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul. Read through the Bible passage slowly, noticing words or phrases that strike you. As you read this story of healing, pay attention to areas of your life that perhaps need a healing touch. After you've read the passage and the reflection that follows it, spend some time praying or journaling your response to God's word.

Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him. "My little daughter is dying," he said. "Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live."

Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. 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."

While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, "Your daughter is dead. There's no use troubling the Teacher now."

But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid. Just have faith."

Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. He went inside and asked, "Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn't dead; she's only asleep."

The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. Holding her hand, he said to her, "Talitha koum," which means "Little girl, get up!" And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.
Mark 5:21–43(New Living Translation)

Who do you look to as an example of faith?

I think sometimes the best spiritual mentors are people whose struggles have given them a gritty, raw, but very real faith.

According to Jewish law, this woman's health problems were not just personal, but would render her "unclean" and therefore exclude her from social and religious activities.

This woman was desperate, but bold. Her suffering did not defeat her, but filled her with an amazing faith. If she touched Jesus, she would render him "unclean"—and that would get her into big trouble. Still, she risks it. Maybe she figures the risk is better than continuing to suffer alone anymore. But Jesus responds in a way that turns the law upside down—instead of her contaminating him, he "decontaminates" her by immediately healing her.

As if this weren't surprising enough, he stops to offer not only physical healing but spiritual and emotional restoration as well. He welcomes her back to the family of faith with the words, "Daughter, your faith has made you well." Instead of pointing to her as a sinner, an unclean woman (the label she'd worn for twelve years), he now holds her up as an example, to the surprised crowd, and to Jairus.

Meanwhile, Jairus's daughter dies. "Just believe, like this woman did," he seems to be saying. He points to her as an example of faith.

Be open today to the idea that God may want to use someone unexpected to be an example to you of what it means to live a life of faith. If you are going through a time of suffering, trust that Jesus sees you and wants to heal you. He may even want to use your life to inspire others to greater faith.

Don't be afraid; just believe.

Adapted from Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul, (Revell, 2006) by Keri Wyatt Kent.

Keri Wyatt Kent is an author, speaker, and children's ministry volunteer. Learn more at www.keriwyattkent.com

Copyright © 2007 Promiseland.

Read more from 'For Your Soul'

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