Using the version from Mark 5:24-34
24 ...A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "
32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
I could only imagine that she was weakened from all the bleeding, probably too frail and tired to walk upright, and probably had to crawl to where Jesus was. The desperation was enough that she did what she did, just to touch Jesus' cloak.
Just a touch. Not even to ask if she would be healed. She didn't even know if she would be healed. Like us, we all hear stories about certain things, and yet we still don't believe! I am amazed with this woman, who pursued something that could be nothing, but with the little strength she could muster, she pull herself towards Jesus.
Have we forgotten what it is to be in desperation for God and His touch? Do we merely wait in hopelessness, and forget to chase after His healing? Are we no longer in faith, knowing what Christ has done before in our own lives, but each time, fearful that He may no longer want to hear the requests we present to Him?
Even so, even if we have forgotten how it all works, I believe even if we are desperate enough to cry out for His love, His healing, it will come. But please, separate this from the "I don't know if He will hear me, or I'm uncertain if it will happen," but just come in desperation, and not in doubt, for it says in Luke 11:5-12
5Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness[e] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
ASK! BELIEVE!
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