When the woman touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and was healed, Jesus says, “Someone deliberately touched me.” The disciples, when Jesus asked who’d touched him, had said that the crowd was pressing against him and how could anyone tell who’d touched him? But Jesus was asking about a deliberate touch, one that had taken healing power from him. He had felt the power leave.
Sometimes people say, “If God wants he heal me, he will.” With the implication of “I don’t have to ask him specifically or repeatedly or in particular circumstances for him to heal.” The report here in Luke 8:45 suggests otherwise. Though the woman’s request was implicit, it was deliberate.
Most aspects of healing are mysteries to me and to most of us. But here’s a clear message: Be deliberate in our requests. Seek to touch Jesus. I don’t know what that might mean for you, today, in your circumstance. But it means something specific, measurable, and particular. Go to a healing room and request prayer from one of their small groups dedicated to healing prayer. Go to a healing communion service. Get alone with God in the night and cry out with your whole heart to be healed.
I wish he healed more regularly. I wish for less mystery. And yet, I am grateful he heals at all. Had he never responded to my desperate requests, my life would be far different.
More, Lord. More. We need your deliberate touch. Give us grace, this Easter season, to stretch out our hands again to reach the hem of your garment. For your glory. Amen.