I Need A Miracle!

I Need A Miracle!

There was a woman in the crowd who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel that she had been healed! –Mark 5:25, 27, 29

I had never committed to a weekly Bible study because, to be honest, I thought I knew enough about the Bible. Besides, I was far too busy doing “important” things for God. But some health problems and the loneliness of a move made me desperate. So one Wednesday morning I visited a local Bible study class. Little did I know that God would change my life that day.

The lecturer, Sue, was teaching on Matthew 8–9, which includes a series of miracles Jesus performed. She described the woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years and drew a picture of her as a desperate, destitute outcast, suffering alone and unknown. The life was literally draining out of her. And in her desperation, she reached out to Jesus. With a clasp of faith, she immediately felt her hemorrhage stop. Sue looked up and asked, “Do you feel like the life is draining out of you? Are you desperate for a miracle?” And it was all I could do to keep from raising my hand, because I knew I needed nothing less than a miracle.

Though I grew up in church, worked in Christian publishing, and was a leader at church, my greatest fear was that someone might ask me, “What is God doing in your life right now?” I knew I would have nothing to say. I rarely read my Bible and it had been so long since I prayed, I didn’t know where to start. I was embarrassed to start and afraid to fail . . . again. With a heart dulled by years of unresponsiveness, I knew I needed more than a new system or setting; I needed a miracle to come alive spiritually, to experience real change. And as I reached out to Jesus in desperate faith that day and in the weeks and months that followed, his power flowed into me, his Word began to change me, his Spirit began to transform me.

Can you relate? Is the life draining out of you, leaving you spiritually limp and dull? Will you reach out to Jesus in your desperation so that he might give you nothing less than a life-giving miracle?

Life Giver, I see myself in the stained robes of this woman. I am broken and desperate for a miracle of life that only you can give. Weary from my failures of the past, I reach out to you in faith once more.

DIGGING DEEPER