Anxious for Answers

“A woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years had endured much under many doctors…For she said, “If I can just touch His robes, I’ll be made well!’” (Mark 5:25, 28).

In our “Perfect Timing” devotional series, we’ve been looking at Mark chapter 5 where Jesus is asked by Jairus, a synagogue leader, to heal his little girl. While Jesus is traveling with Jairus to his house to heal the girl, a woman reaches out from the crowd and touches Jesus’ robe.

This woman’s name is unknown to us, but we know that she’s suffered from menstrual bleeding for 12 years. The Word tells us that she’s sought out doctors to try to find a cure. She’s spent everything she has trying to find relief, but the Word says that her condition only worsened. Then Jesus comes into town. She’s heard about Him, and in her desperation to be healed, she makes her way to Him in the crowd—not to talk to Him, just to touch His robe.

During this time period, the only place people could seek spiritual help was in the synagogue, but there were rules about who could enter. If you were considered “unclean” due to an illness or certain sin, you weren’t allowed in the synagogue. The very place people were meant to find hope and healing would shut the door if someone was considered “unclean.”

Therefore, this sick woman had been searching aimlessly for help. She’d spent everything only to come up empty-handed.

How many times have we gone searching for answers in all the wrong places? This isn’t just a question regarding our time before we knew Jesus. This is a question posed about our present. Even as a son or daughter of God, do we go looking for answers everywhere else instead of seeking Jesus?

We’ll spend the money and read the books and listen to the podcasts and ask our friends, but how often are we never satisfied? Perhaps you’re growing impatient in your season of waiting, so you’re looking for answers and confirmation at every opportunity, but instead of finding relief, you’re only getting worse.

You think you’ve got to get the answer now because time is short. But there is no one else who can heal you and no one else who can satisfy you. Even the best worldly advice will never bring you relief or satisfaction.  

In our waiting, we must choose Jesus. All other avenues will lead us astray. But if we can get to Jesus, He will lift our weary heads and do a good work in us.