SoulFit: Faith Through the Pain

We sit with the woman in Mark 5 who suffers silently for 12 long years and still finds the courage to reach for Jesus. We talk about what faith looks like when nothing has worked, dignity wants to hold us back, and desperation keeps us moving toward healing and peace. 
• silent pain that nobody can see 
• the woman with the issue of blood and why her suffering is more than physical 
• long problems and why they wear us down over time 
• faith that starts with hearing and continues with action 
• pushing past dignity to get close enough for proximity 
• why Jesus stops in the crowd and calls her daughter 
• healing that restores identity and makes room for peace 
• spiritual exhaustion and hope for change in a moment and a word 

I look forward to seeing you right here next time on SoulFit. 

https://aarondegler.com/

Transcript

Welcome And Weekly Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome, Soulfit. Thank you for taking time to join us today. If this is your first time here, welcome. Each week we join our live call as I share a message, just a few words from scripture, and then how that applies to our life and our everyday walk. Sometimes it's easy to hear it when we hear the message, and sometimes it's very challenging when we take it out into the world with us. So my hope is that each week I can share a little bit about that. How do we make it applicable to our everyday life? So let's join our live call. So today, I think sometimes we do have heavy topics, but maybe today's a little bit more because it's really about struggles I think we all face, things we all have. Kind of those things that if you ever have something going on and no one else can see it, it's not visible to the world. Maybe it's a smile, but there's a lot of struggles on the inside. Maybe like me that sometimes feels like I've tried everything and nothing worked. And we're gonna talk about a woman who suffered silently for 12 years, 12 long years. And so really it's it, I mean, she doesn't even have a name. It's the woman with an issue of blood. And really, we're gonna talk about faith through the pain and how and what that looks like. And so so we could kind of all get a sense of what's going on. I thought I'd read from Mark 5, 24 through 34, kind of gives us an idea, kind of set up and tells us what's going on. Basically, Jesus was going with somebody to save his daughter, his child, and so they were leading it. Jesus was going through a crowd. And so starting in Mark 5, 24, it says, So Jesus went with him, talking about the man to save his child, and a large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. I think some of us have tried a lot of things, and we think instead of getting better, it's getting worse. What's wrong? What's going on? And I think we have, you know, felt like she did. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, if I just touch his cloth, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized the power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? You see the people crowd around against you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask, Who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. And then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet, and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. Twelve long years. Seen lots of doctors. Maybe it's not doctors, maybe it's something else. You know, maybe it's been 15 years, maybe it's been five years. She spent all of her money, and all that she had done, it kept getting worse, not better. Um, I think we can feel like that in our lives sometimes. I'm doing, wait, I'm doing all the right things. Everything I'm supposed to be doing, I'm doing the right things. But why is it getting worse? It should be getting better. So she didn't just have a problem, she had a long problem. And I think probably some of us, me included, we've had some long problems. We'd all sometimes like a short problem. When we, you know, we complain in treadmill class one or a 15%. And and and it does require some complaining because it's hard. But we're there maybe a minute. But what if I said, okay, today we're gonna do a 30-minute class at 15%, and and you set your speed, you can't change it. That's what you get. And you might be able to handle it. But what if I said, okay, we're gonna do two hours at a 15%, you can't change your speed? You'd get to be dying. And so when we think of a long problem, that's what a long problem does to us sometimes. Like, I don't know if I can go anymore. I don't know if I can keep going. And and and to think about her, you know, why would that be an issue? You know, would we think necessarily now that would be an a cultural issue of a woman bleeding for 12 years? It may be different now because we have different cultures, but then she was considered unclean, she was couldn't be touched. 12 years, can't be touched, unclean. She couldn't go out into a public space freely, and she lived in in isolation, she was isolated, and and and think about how that would feel for 12 years, doing all the right things, going to see the doctors and everything getting worse. So her pain just wasn't the physical, it was also rational and emotional that she had to go through. And and her desperation is really this in Mark 5 27, it says, and she had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. That was it. She heard, and that was her desperation. It wasn't that she knew he she'd heal him, but she heard about Jesus, and just from the hearing, she thought, I need to go see this man, I need to touch this man. And isn't that what happens to a lot of us sometimes is that faith often starts with hearing. And what did she do next? She heard and then she came up behind Jesus. She heard and then she took action. And so, because sometimes we don't start taking action, we hear first. I don't know what the outcome looks like, but I hear that I'm supposed to be obedient. Um when I'm obedient, maybe the understanding will come, maybe it's not won't, but I need to be obedient in the moment for the next moment. Because she heard, and then if I just touch his garment, I'll be healed. So she didn't, she wasn't looking for a platform. And platform, we think of platforms now as how do I get my word out? How do I get my plight? How do I get my agony? How do I get my despair out? Who do I tell? How do I share it with the world? She wasn't looking for that. She didn't need a platform, she wasn't looking for attention. She didn't say, Part the ways, I'm coming through to touch the big man's road. No, she didn't need permission. She just needed proximity. She just needed to be close. I just need to touch it. She just needed to be around it. And all those people, you know, I my the picture in my mind is that there's a crowd of people pressing against Jesus. And I see this again, this is the way I see it. That she just her hand gets through the crowd, and she may not be able to seem, but she can touch his his robe. It touches cloth. And in that moment, in that proximity, her desperation pushed through sometimes what our dignity wants. Sometimes, and and think about this. Again, she was unclean. She was in a crowd of people. She was in a around people that think she shouldn't be there. She needs to be isolated. But she was desperate. And and and society would tell her, and she would go out and go, I don't want people to see me. I'm unclean. I'm not worthy. I don't, but she pushed past all through that because of the desperation. Her dignity probably said, Don't do that. But her desperation said, you have to do that. It's been 12 years. So she pushes through the crowd, knowing she's not supposed to be there. She could be rejected, she could be exposed, and but she moves anyway because she heard and she moved. She heard and she moved. And it makes you know makes me think of her and think, what what pain do we have that's holding us back? What step of faith have we been avoiding? Because her dignity says, Don't take the step. Don't take the step. Her desperation said, I have to take the step. I can't help but take the step because I'm so desperate. And it's been so long. I just need to be in proximity. I just need to touch. And she touches his garment, and immediately, immediately, like that, 12 long years, and immediately the blood stops, her body's healed. Immediately. But yet, what did Jesus do? He stopped and he asked, Who touched me? Who was that? And he wasn't necessarily looking for information. Do you think Jesus actually needed to know who just touched him? No, he knew who touched him, but he wanted the crowd to know who touched him. And so she comes. I mean, what would you be thinking if Jesus just called out, Who touched me? I mean, you think, uh-oh. You think getting in trouble by the principal is a big deal? You know, this is a big deal. And this woman is unclean, shouldn't be out in public, doing all the wrong things, according to society. But yet she comes forward and scared, just as any of us would be. And he says, Jesus says, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from suffering. Her faith healed her. How did her faith heal her? I thought she touched Jesus. Her faith healed her because she heard and she took action. And she went past her dignity because her desperation drove her to that. And that is what faith looks like. It's pushing past all those things that says this shouldn't be. And he said, Go in peace and be freed from suffering. He didn't call her, hey woman, why did you touch me? He didn't call her unclean. He didn't say, What problems have you had? He said daughter. And who calls who calls you daughter? Your father does. And he it no matter no matter what you've gone through in life, the hope is that your father always calls you daughter, always responds in daughter. And that's exactly what he did. And so why did he do that? He just didn't heal her condition. She could have touched him and she could have disappeared in the crowd. Not a big deal. But instead, he said, Who touched me? And then his response was, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace. And so he didn't just heal her condition, he restored her identity. He needed the people around to say, This woman is clean. She can be around, she can be touched. There's nothing wrong with her. And she was she was healed and restored, and which restored her identity. Because she needed to be seen. So people around her would know. And she needed to be restored publicly to say that that she has been healed. Because he could have just kept on going and not let her stop him. But the neat thing is that a crowd of people, all these people, and Jesus stopped for the one that the crowd didn't even notice. The crowd totally overlooked the one. But Jesus stopped for that. So and when we think of her, and and she's not given a name, it's really just the woman with the issue of blood. But the name she is given is super powerful, which is daughter. And you know, as we as we think about that, how does that relate to to us? How does that relate to you? Sometimes it looks like the silent pain that you may carry. It may be tired of trying everything. Everything you try, it just doesn't work. Sometimes it feels like for a long time. It feels like feeling of spiritual exhaustion. We think of physical exhaustion, but sometimes I don't always think we think of spiritual exhaustion. I've prayed and I've prayed and I've listened and I've listened and I get nothing. It can be exhausting. Think about when you exercise a whole bunch and you don't see results. Don't you go, man, this is exhausting. Why am I doing this? It can be spiritually exhausting. And maybe it's just afraid to step out. Or maybe it's just waiting for that right moment. There's too many people. I can't do that. But she didn't wait for the right moment. She heard and came. So she could be in proximity so she could touch. And I know I know that all those things people carry. We know about them. We experience them. We like I say, me and and Kim, us as a couple, us individually, those that come through those doors, experience those. And it can be a long time. But the neat thing is, I told Kim this the other day. We're talking about something, and it was talking about, and I'm not gonna get these names right because I never do, Meshach. I want to say Meshach, Reshach, and Abendigo, but I don't think that's close. But uh the the three dudes that walk through the fire. But you know, and and and the fourth was Jesus in there, and and and I told her, you know, I said, you know what? I get tired of walking through the fire. I'm tired of being in the fire. And and they were listening to something else, and and we had that conversation about being in the fire, and like, you know, it just gets exhausting, spiritual exhausting sometime to be in the fire. And then I heard listened to another message, and it talked about in a moment, everything changed. And in a word that God spoke, everything changed. In a moment and in a word, and that's what can happen to us. We suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer, and in a moment, in a word, everything changes. But we have to have the faith that in the word, in the moment, there'll be healing. Just you know, why would there only be 10 verses about the woman with blood, but yet be so impactful on our lives? Because I think Jesus wanted to show us that even through the long suffering, everything you tried, you can push through the crowd, push through the despair, or that will push you past your dignity for that moment, for that word you've been waiting for, for that moment you have been waiting for to be healed. So that is the challenge is keep moving forward. Because I wish life was a utopia. If you don't know what utopia means, it is perfect. You if we lived in utopia, it'd be perfect, and unfortunately, none of us are given perfect lives. So we all have challenges, some are short, some are long, but we all do have the hope that all we have to do is hear, and then we take a step of faith and respond to what we hear. So that is good news for today. It's a good news for a Friday. It's good news for a fantastically fabulous Friday. Um, so I'll close this in prayer. We can go on about this wonderful Friday. Some of us are having a better Friday than others because some out on the water sipping my tithes. So we will finish up in prayer and be on our way. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for the words you have shared through me, that you share with us, Lord. Thank you for the hope that you give us no matter our suffering. I just pray for those that are suffering, each one of us that that we keep pushing through, we we keep push through our dignity, we allow that to push through, and that we can get in proximity. We hear and we respond with that step of faith, Lord, that in a moment, in a word, we will be healed. And I just pray that for each one of us today, that we keep pushing forward for that moment and that word that we have healing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And thank you to each one of you, and I hope you have a great Friday. And thank you for being patient with me today. Thank you all. Thanks, God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you to each one of you for joining us on SoulFit. I look forward to seeing you right here next time on SoulFit.