Faith’s Rewards
David W Palmer
Jesus’s apprentices have been learning how to overcome in all kinds of situations and how to deal with all types of questions. Today, they still have many more things to learn, as they continue to follow the Master and join him in his ministry. We too can enjoy this adventurous learning every day as we follow Jesus in our own lives.
(Matthew 9:18–19 NKJV) While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” {19} So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.
Jesus was just finishing his explanation to John’s disciples—about why his and John’s ministries were so different—when suddenly a distressed man desperately wanted his help. Jesus followed him; the disciples followed Jesus. But unexpectedly, their progress was halted when another desperate person expressed faith:
(Matthew 9:20–22 NKJV) And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. {21} For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” {22} But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
This woman’s faith is eternally recorded in God’s holy word. This way, not only Jesus’s original twelve disciples can learn from it, but all who will make the time to meditate on this passage and visualize this event can have the benefit of learning from her faith too. When we see how it worked for her, we can apply it to ourselves and teach it to others. So, how did her faith produce such an amazing result?
First, she must have heard about Jesus and his miracles. Faith began when she heard the reports, but it grew to maturity as she meditated on what she had heard and mused over what she would do. Her determined faith is revealed in what she said to herself: “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” Another translation has it as:
(Matthew 9:21 NET) For she kept saying to herself, “If only I touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
This reveals the second key to her miracle. Many others must have heard the reports about Jesus, and faith began in them too. But she took it to heart and kept up her confession repeatedly, saying over and over that if she were to touch the hem of his garment she would be healed; and she was. We can also get her result from faith if we imitate the way she operated it.
The third key to her miracle-receiving faith is that she did what she said: she went into the crowd, pushed through to Jesus, and fulfilled her confession; she touched his garment, and she received her healing. Faith without corresponding actions is dead (James 2:18–26).
Her next important key is found in Mark’s account of this incident:
(Mark 5:33 NKJV) But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.
When Jesus perceived that miracle power had gone out from him, he turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” This put the woman under public pressure—the kind of pressure that causes whatever is in your heart to gush out of your mouth. What would she say? Because she came in faith, faith is what came out: “she told him the whole truth.” Her fourth key was to testify to her faith and what it received.
(Matthew 9:22 NKJV) But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
The conclusion of this story is the most amazing part, and we can easily overlook it. The woman was not only healed of her immediate problem, but her faith brought her some astounding additional benefits: “He said, ‘be of good cheer!’” Every word from Jesus has self-fulfilling power if mixed with faith.
