An Intentional Reach

Peyton Johnston

April 29th, 2018

Mark 5:21-34

The city streets were filled with people. Everyone was shoulder-to-shoulder. It was noisy. It was messy. The crowd was so massive that the Bible says they were literally pressed against each other as they passed through – no personal space at all! Meanwhile, Jesus and His disciples were desperately trying to push their way through the mob in order to get to a young girl in need of a miracle. But everyone wanted to be as close to Jesus as possible to see what crazy, amazing thing He was going to do next. So in that moment, it was virtually impossible to get to Jesus.

But in the midst of it all, there was one woman who was so fervently seeking Him that she refused to let anything stop her. She had been struggling with a sickness for years and couldn’t take it anymore. She heard that Jesus was in town and knew that if she reached Him, she could finally be free of her ailment. Somehow, she forced herself through the crowd until she was able to grab ahold of Jesus – or at least, to grab ahold of the hem of His robe. But that was more than enough.

Anyone else probably wouldn’t have even noticed a gentle brushing against their clothes in the middle of such chaos. But Jesus did. He recognized that this was not an accidental touch, but an intentional reach for a healing. He felt the need and He met it. Jesus said that it was because of the woman’s great faith that she was healed.

You see, there’s a difference between brushing up against the Holy Spirit and reaching out to grab ahold of it. With so many different things trying to crowd our lives, it can sometimes seem like it’s impossible to reach Jesus. Relationships, obligations, media, confrontation, temptations, pain, sickness – they all try to stand between us and the Lord. But it’s our job to push past them in order to seize God and all He has for us. We must do more than haphazardly encounter God’s presence – we must intentionally seek Him until we find Him in His entirety.

How desperate are you to see your miracle? Do you have the faith to do whatever it takes to reach Jesus?

Pray: ​“God, I want to do more than casually approach you. I want to intentionally run after you with everything that I am. Help me to push past anything I’ve allowed to take my attention off of you.”