Suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. Matthew 9:20
Recommended Reading: Matthew 9:18-26 “18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.23 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.”
COMMENTS: The Gospels are full of miracles of healing Jesus did during His ministry on earth. Acts also included miracles His disciples did after His Resurrection. His miracles confirmed His power to heal death, sickness, sin, relationships, and even power over satan and the demons of hell. Each miracle met a great need and revealed great compassion for those affected, but far more. Each miracle confirmed Jesus had authority and power over heaven and earth and hell while being attentive to the needs and weaknesses of the weakest of children and adults.
Each one who came to Christ for healing had an expectation. Jairus and Lazarus expected Jesus to come quickly and heal their loved one, not be delayed by the needs of others until their loved one was dead. But Jesus’ delay resulted in healing of sickness to become healing from death. They gave up and lost hope when death came before Jesus’ healing. They had enough faith to believe Jesus would heal but couldn’t imagine healing from death. No one had come back from the grave (ok, maybe Elijah raising the widow’s dead son) and couldn’t bring themselves to dare believe and ask for a resurrection. But Jesus told them trust Him, watch and believe.
I have attended a good number of funerals over the years. The most difficult ones were of close family and friends but especially difficult when death came suddenly to young children. When parents lose their children, there is a special sadness. Likewise, when young children lose a parent, there is a special sense of loss and grief that grips our hearts. At those times we are puzzled and often ask God why? Those answers seldom are clear or even speculated. Yet Jesus didn’t ask those He was about to bless with a healing to understand but to trust Him and believe and have hope.
God doesn’t ask or expect us to understand His Will and Ways and Timing. HE simply asks us to trust Him and be faithful and specially to draw close to Him and be in fellowship and relationship with Him. Having expectations isn’t wrong or sinful. But the closer we get to Him, the more we learn about Him from scripture, and the more we experience life with Him, the more we then discover just how better His Will and Timing and Ways are than our expectations. I believe that will be one of the many wonderful discoveries He will reveal to us in heaven will be knowing the reasons and outcome of the suffering and tragedy and difficulties we asked for help and help came later and differently than we asked or hoped for and expected.
In the meantime, look back at examples of past suffering and clarity for those sufferings that was revealed in time. Then seek His Help for faith and trust during present storms. We are told to ask when encounter life’s storms. But once we’ve asked and prayed through, we need to simply praise and worship Him and sit at His feet soaking up His presence and loving Him in response. The answers we seek will come. Just be prepared to see them when they do come and don’t alienate yourself from Him waiting for those answers. Only He knows and understands His Ways. He knows that we don’t but is growing a deeper and stronger faith in you and maybe countless others in the meantime. That will be far more important 100 years from now. AMEN? AMEN!
“Father, there is nothing too hard for You. When You take us by the hand, we’re in good hands.” David Jeremiah
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 280 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present. You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.
My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.
Published by donsdevotions
Don McDaniel - Who am I?
Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 69-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever.
Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me.
I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private.
However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool.
Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US 4 years ago to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry.
He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 and have just updated December 28, 2019 for republishing. Thus far I have published 530 posts automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God.
I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me during past 7 years I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward.
Don & Arlene McDaniel
In His Service,
Email: dmcdaniel12@zoominternet.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951
If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ )
You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials. View all posts by donsdevotions
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