MARK 5: 33-34 KJV
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

DAILY READING : Acts 27:1-12; 1 Samuel 2:11-36; Psalm 50

In February 1991,  American athlete, Gail Devers  was being rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles to have her feet amputated. Her body had been reacting adversely to a radiation medication she was taking, drastically affecting her feet. Amputation seemed to be the only solution. To Gail, it seemed as if her life had  suddenly turned upside down.   

The nightmare had started as she trained for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She had begun suffering mild hair loss and felt lethargic, and her weight dipped below 87 pounds.  Due to her poor health, in Seoul, she performed poorly, and didn’t make the finals.  The next few months were even harder, as she began to feel worse and her health deteriorated further. Doctors were baffled by her symptoms.  For two and a half years, doctors failed to diagnose her  problem. It was so disillusioning that she refused to go out because her appearance repulsed people. 

But being a pastor’s daughter, and brought up to always trust God, she held on to God in her trials. Finally she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an illness of the thyroid gland. When She began radiation therapy for the disease, a few weeks later she found she couldn’t walk and was crawling from the bedroom to the bathroom. The radiation had proved too much and her thyroid was almost destroyed. The doctors later told her she was lucky to have survived. But they still planned to amputate her legs. Being a runner this was most painful. 

When she was taken to the hospital to have her feet amputated, she prayed to God: ‘Not my feet, please. If you save them, I will use them for however long you wish me to.’ And a miracle happened.  After that, she slowly began to recover. A month later in March 1991, she began training.  By August she was competing in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where she won a silver medal in the sprint hurdles. A year later she was standing on the starting line for the Olympic 100m final in Barcelona. 

Standing there, set to run in the Olympics, for her, was very emotional, because a mere nineteen months earlier she had been crawling on her  hands and knees. Though in that race no one gave her a chance,  she prayed ‘God, let your will be done.’ And she won that race. She became an Olympic champion and would defend her title four years later at the Atlanta Games of 1996.  She continued in her sporting career to become one of the greatest female athletes in sporting history. 

Her comeback after a disease that nearly took her life, and almost got her feet amputated was miraculous. And she credits God for her healing. 

When faith moves God is moved.  

It is the state of your mind that will determine the quality of the things you experience in life. Gail could have easily given up, the odds against her were much, the medical diagnosis were frightening. But she had an inner tenacity that held on to God and refused to let go. 

This is what the lady with the issue of blood did. She refused to give up, she kept on pressing forward with her faith, despite how discouraging the situation. [Mark 5:25-34]. The doctors said she’d never get well, but she knew once she could connect to Jesus she would  be healed. Faith gets God’s attention. 

Your faith can turn Jesus in your direction. When you stir up your faith it will move  the hands of almighty God. God is bigger than your problem, He is more powerful than the sickness. He is still Jehovah Rapha. And He knows how to trouble your troublers. In 2 Kings 19:35, One angel sent by God, destroyed over 180,000 enemies. God is still the same today and forever. 

What you are facing now is only a test, and God is closely watching you to see how you react to it. Will you react in faith or in fear?  It is what is in you, that will determine how you react. This is why it is important to keep feeding on The Word of God. Until you know what is written you cannot control what is happening. It is absence of light that makes a man a victim of darkness. 

When your heart is filled with The Word it will control what comes out of your mouth, and what comes from your mouth will determine what happens to  you. The woman with the issue of blood released her faith. It started in her thinking. She had expectancy within her, and the Bible tells us that the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut off.

Faith will always birth expectation within you. It will cause you to see possibilities even when the situation looks  impossible. There is nothing you face in life that can be impossible to God. All we need to do is to put our faith to work. Faith is what gets God’s attention. So let us decide today to rise to a new level of faith through increasing our depth in The Word of God. 

PRAYER: Lord, I thank You for a renewed appetite for Your Word,  please grant me the grace to go deeper in my understanding, so that the needed  faith can arise in me to destroy every mountain of opposition before me. .  

QUOTE 

Reading The Bible gives you over view, Studying it takes you to depths. – WORDBITE 222. 

 [ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK FAITH CLASSICS]