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marbella3 70F
2483 posts
12/10/2019 4:30 am

Last Read:
12/10/2019 3:04 pm

Grace at the End

Bible in a Year:

Hosea 1–4
Revelation 1
, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

Mark 5:34

Mark 5:25–34
Artist Doug Merkey’s masterful sculpture Ruthless Trust features a bronze human figure clinging desperately to a cross made of walnut wood. He writes, “It’s a very simple expression of our constant and appropriate posture for life—total, unfettered intimacy with and dependency upon Christ and the gospel.”

That’s the kind of trust we see expressed in the actions and words of the unnamed woman in Mark 5:25–34. For twelve years her life had been in shambles (v. 25). “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” (v. 26). But having heard about Jesus, she made her way to Him, touched Him, and was “freed from her suffering” (vv. 27–29).

Have you come to the end of yourself? Have you depleted all your resources? Anxious, hopeless, lost, distressed people need not despair. The Lord Jesus still responds to desperate faith—the kind displayed by this suffering woman and depicted in Merkey’s sculpture. This faith is expressed in the words of hymn writer Charles Wesley: “Father, I stretch my hands to Thee; no other help I know.” Don’t have that kind of faith? Ask God to help you trust Him. Wesley’s hymn concludes with this prayer: “Author of faith, to Thee I lift my weary, longing eyes; O may I now receive that gift! My soul, without it, dies.”

Reflect & Pray
When have you desperately clung to Christ? How did God meet your need?

Father, thank You for Your power to rescue me. Help me to trust You to meet all my needs.


MrsJoe 76F
17384 posts
12/10/2019 1:16 pm

There is a situation about which I have spent a lot of time in prayer, including a sleepless night. I finally reached that point of peace where I knew that God knows what is best and what needs done. Suddenly, it was no longer on my mind constantly, but praise rises up frequently.
On another note, Joe just got released from the care of the orthopedic surgeon after his fractured femur. He walks with a walker and stand by assist. He was astonished by Joe's progress, and we gave God the glory for it. His last words to Joe were, "Go and enjoy life."


Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.