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Women World Leaders' Podcast


Nov 25, 2022

Join Lisa Hathaway as she talks about having faith to touch the hem of His garment.  In our circumstances, we need to focus on just reaching for God and how the faith, even if little, can change our hearts.  The small gesture of touching the hem leads to complete healing.  

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Welcome to Celebrating God's Grace, a Women World Leaders podcast. And I am Lisa Hathaway and I'm going to be talking to you today for a few minutes. about faith. I know we hear this a lot of times in our lives about having faith and you know, in the Scripture talks about having faith, the size of a mustard seed, but something that has just been really on my heart and something I've reread. And I'm going to read this to you out of Mark chapter five starting in verse 25. And it says, and there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and have suffered much under many physicians. And it's been all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his garment. For she said, If I just touch, even his garments, I will be made well, and immediately the blood, the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus perceiving in himself, that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments. And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me. And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, and fell down before him and told him, the world told him the whole truth. And she said to her, Daughter, your faith is made, you will go in peace and be healed of your disease. When I'm reading this, I couple of things stick out to me. You know, when we go through life, sometimes we just want to be able to reach and tangibly touch Jesus, just like the hem of His garment. And I think about this thread, you know, when you have something that you're wearing, and there's a piece of thread that you pull and pull in this, the, it comes apart. And, you know, when she was crawling on the ground, I just envision her just so desperate, after 12 years, just as desperation, of just wanting a touch from Jesus to be healed from this. And all she had to do is just touch the touch the tiny him. And I think so many times we can make things so complicated as Christians, that our faith is something that we just truly inside innately have to believe in once we start seeing something and have faith that it continues to build, and it continues to build and build. And that is what is absolutely so beautiful to me. Another part of this as is when Jesus looked around, and the woman came to him fear and trembling, like came in fear, like she had done something wrong. And she hadn't, she just chooses longing to be healed. And so she just touched his garment. And because he is Jesus, the power left from him to heal her. But she fell down before him and told him the whole truth. You know, when you fall at the feet of Jesus, like so much can happen when we surrender at his feet. If something's going on in our lives, and we're, our circumstances are not like we think they should be or bad things are happening to us or we don't understand or we're suffering or things are happening in our families. And we just, you know, the world's a Hard Place life is hard. And I think that, that in those moments is when we have to clean we have to reach out and visualize just touching the hem of His garment. There's been so many times in the past two and a half years of my life of just going through a lot, a lot of hard things and just my journey that I've literally just reached out to try to touch like, I'm just like to use this. I just want to touch your home. Like I know that you're there. I know you haven't left me I just need that faith and have that faith to be able to touch and see for who you really are. Because when we can have that childlike faith And we can sit here on a daily basis. And we don't understand there's so much in this life that we do not understand. And God doesn't expect us to understand everything because he has a plan and purpose for our lives. And so when I continue to read through this, and you know, nothing takes God by surprise, hey, nothing takes them by surprise, he has it all figured out. He has it all planned out. And to me that should, that should allow us to have enough faith that itself right that he sees the end from the beginning, he knows exactly what is happening. He knows exactly what our day is going to look like. He knows the hairs on our head, he knows what's happening with our children, our spouses, relationships, friendships, whatever it may be, and, you know, sometimes you reaching out just to touch the hem of His garment. And having that amount of faith is when you just cry out and say, Jesus, you have that faith that just uttering the words, Jesus out of your mouth, when there's when you don't know what to say, is is so healing in itself. You know, I remember a time when I was going on my breast cancer journey last year, and I was sitting there and I was trying to worship, you know, there was no, I worship music, I was in just a bad mental spot. And I literally was sitting on my couch just like Jesus, Jesus, I just kept saying it. Like, I didn't have words to say, you know, people say I'm praying for you. And I appreciate all that. But I didn't have the actual words to know what to pray. I just had a double mastectomy. And I was sitting here and I'm just like, I'm not understanding all of this. I'm not understanding your plan right now. But I trust you. And so it's like, having that faith and trust in Jesus who died for us? Like there should never be a question. And so, you know, it's so encouraging to me when we're able to share the love of Jesus through our stories and through Scripture. And when, you know, I continue to read through Mark five, and it, it's just there's so many nuggets in here. You know, she had heard the reports about Jesus. So the reports about him, which means he's a healer. And healing sometimes doesn't take place in the way we think it should. But Jesus is a healer. So she's like, Okay, I've heard these reports, I'm going to try to find him, I'm going to try to touch him, I'm going to try to see him. So she had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his garment. So she literally was in the midst of I just picture this huge crowd downtown somewhere. And she's just like, I need to be healed after 12 years of this. And she came up behind him and touched his garment, not even physically touching his body, or his hair, or his face or his hand or anything, she touched his garment. And immediately, the blood dried up. And so I think it's just it's so empowering and powerful to me, you know, when you're processing it out. And sometimes we can't fathom the the greatness of God and the vastness of His love for us. But when we can sit here, and just have that childlike faith to say, God, I know that you have this plan, I know the things that you're working are for my good. I do know there's a purpose. I will call your name, no matter what I will always call your name Jesus, I will always reach for the hem of your garment. Even when I feel like I can't reach I'm going to reach for the hem of your garment because I know that you are so good. And you are so faithful to complete the work that you started. There is never a day that goes by that he hasn't thought about she loves you pursued you, he chose you. And so I just challenge you today and encourage you today that when you don't know what else to do, just take Jesus in or age just reach for him reach for the hem of His garment. It's it might be daunting, it might seem impossible, but it's not because he sees you and he knows and he wants you to call out to him. He wants you to be there. He hasn't left us sometimes we can leave him but he hasn't left us and he's just longing longing for us to say Jesus to keep calling out So, so I just thank you all for listening. I hope this encourages you continue to press in daily. And we have celebrating God's grace for one or more leaders podcast every Friday. So this is again this is Lisa Hathaway. Thank you.