Pressed to Praise

The Woman with the blood issue is a very familiar passage of scripture. Moreover, it is one in which if we're not careful, we could really miss what it is that God is saying to us through this text. In fact, turn with me to the 5th chapter of the book of Mark and let us begin with the 25th verse, the word reads.....And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 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. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 25:25-34)

The Issue:
Problems and issues, issues and problems. Either way you spin it, everybody knows somebody with a whole lot of them. Every time you turn around this person is going through. Every time you look up they're on the sick, and shut in list. But, if we look at the text above that's not what scripture seeks to highlight. At first glance, we see that scripture only makes mention of the unnamed woman's issue to show the fact that we all have a past. Some of the issues that we face on the inside are more pressing and detrimental then that of anything physically related. And so we find ourselves in the woman's shoes; we find ourselves in her situation. One in which no one is able to properly make us feel better. No one is able to really speak to what it is that we've been going through and we feel completely healed. It's as if our issues have no expiration date. All we know is that we've been going through what we've been going through for so long, that our struggle, our breakdown, our pit stop, is just how we live, it's just our way of life. It is what it is, and we know that we can't change it on our own. And just when you thought that things were as bad as they could be, just when you thought that life had hit an all time low, new obstacles come along and make things worse. It's time for each and every one of us to acknowledge the fact that we're not perfect, and that we have issues. We've gone to everyone that we thought could help, we've turned to every substance that we thought could help, but nothing seemed to fill the hole. Nothing seemed to make momma come back, no relationship seemed to replace what dad should have done, we've got issues, but the text tells us that God can solve it.

The Facts:
In the 27 verse of our text we find that the woman after waiting 12 long years for a permanent solution to her problem receives news of the fact that "Jesus" was passing through an area close by. Right here right now we see that the woman did not allow her problems to overshadow her possibilities. When she heard that Jesus, the chosen one sent from God to deliver people from their sins, was stopping through, she took the opportunity to step out on faith. She didn't send someone else, she didn't listen to the nay Sayers, she ignored her haters, she didn't care who saw her, she didn't care what they thought of her, but she stepped out on faith. Some of us right now, can't function can't live, can't love, can't enjoy life because we're too preoccupied with what others think of us, scripture tells us that, "faith without works is dead" , sometimes you've just got to move to get to the place that God has for you. Sometimes you've got to step away from you, step out of your comfort zone, and go to seek God.

The Bottom line:
Pressed in a contemporary sense means desperate and anxious to receive something that you've set your mind and heart on receiving. But, the question is what are you pressed for? Our priorities sometimes are so out of whack. We go out of our way, figuratively breaking our necks, to please people who have their hearts set on disliking us, and treat those who genuinely love us really bad. We'd rather spend money on the TURN UP instead of our Textbook. We would rather lose ourselves in a dysfunctional unhealthy relationship with a man or woman who treats us any kind of way, and put God on the back burner of our lives until we need a miracle. But in our text we find that it is more important to be Pressed to Praise than anything else. Because for the woman with the issue of blood it lead to a Breakthrough. She came to God with great expectations, she came expecting a miracle, she went with the assumption that God was capable of doing everything that she needed him to do. Some of us haven't been delivered from our issues because we have spoken negatively and been so pessimistic that we've come to a place where  we have no expectations of God, and lack any faith at all. Jesus told the woman that her faith made her whole. So, where is your faith? Where does your hope lie? Is it in friends or God? Are you fully prepared and ready for a miracle to take place in your life? And if the answer is yes, then get ready, and  understand that God is able to do whatever it is that you need him to do. You can be made whole, you can be made complete, keep the faith, don't give up, and always remain pressed to praised!


Let us bow:
Lord,

You're awesome, and you are mighty. God you are Holy and we Love you so much. God some of us have been going through the motions. Some of us have been facilitating the spirit of everything is fine and perfect, but Lord we now set that persona aside. God we humble ourselves at the hem of your garment and ask that you make us whole. God we've sought all of the help that man could give, we looked in every direction possible, but now Lord we recognize that no body, but you can make us complete. Nobody but you can fix our issues and solve our problems. So we step out of the way God that you might be able to do what you do in our lives, that your strength might reflect itself in a mighty way, and show forth the product of a divine encounter and a divine experience. Bless us and keep us for it is in the mighty name of Jesus we pray, Amen!!