Deliberate

I love the miracle of the 5 loaves and the 2 fish’eees’ (as my little girl says). You remember the story in Matthew 14 where the hour was getting late and the disciples were getting hungry. They went to the Lord and said, “This place we are in doesn’t have many restaurants. Why don’t you send the people away so they can get back to their towns and buy food before it’s too late?” The Master then took what they had (which was five loaves of bread and two fish) and fed 5,000 people with twelve baskets left over.

There is another miracle found in Luke 8 where a woman had suffered for twelve years with an issue of blood and could not find a cure. Scripture says that she had to press her way through the crowd. I can envision that she had to crawl, push, and nudge her way through those that were surrounding Jesus.

Have you ever had the opportunity to get close to someone famous? If several begin to figure out that ‘you know who’ is standing right over there - and you are not first in line - you shall have a long wait, or you are going to have to grow mighty determined to just get close.

Central Park
(New York, NY)

That was this woman’s dilemma. Jesus was passing through and she had to fight her way to her answer. Once she reached out and touched the hem of His garment, Jesus stopped. He asked the question, “Who touched me?” The disciples tried to tell Him, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.” But I love how the NLT says it in Vs. 48: Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” {Deliberately touched me} 

In other words, she had a purpose for crawling, pushing, and nudging her way through just to touch Him.

Neither one of these examples of God’s power are any greater than the other.
The significant thing in the example of the 5 loaves and 2 fish is, Jesus took their gift. He took what they had and performed this amazing miracle.
When it came to the woman that had the issue of blood, He was just passing through. He didn’t command her to come to Him. He didn’t say, ‘Lady, bring me what you have.’ She was even afraid after stopping Jesus in that moment when He was asking, “Who touched me?”

She just reached a place where she became tired of suffering.
I can imagine she thought, I don’t have to scream out to Him, and I don’t have to interrupt wherever it is that He is heading. He doesn’t even have to speak to me. If I can just crawl my way through everyone and everything else, I can be healed.

Haven’t most of us been in a moment, or moments like this? We have nothing left to offer. We don’t have the five loaves and two fish to place in His hands.  While God is always there, we feel like He is a million miles away. Sometimes, we don’t have faith in ourselves, much less in God. 

It is in those moments that we are going to have to crawl, push, and nudge stuff out of the way in order to receive our answer. Nudge past the ‘crowds’ of doubt. Crawl around the noise of negativity and relationships that stand in the way. And push through the door that is holding the answer that we so desperately desire.

That is deliberate. And deliberate faith stops Jesus in His tracks.