Scripture:

Mark 5:24-34
24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,
26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse — 
27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.
28 For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well."
29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?" 
31 And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'"
32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.
34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction."
NASU


Thoughts:

This woman receives her healing in an unusual way.  Apparently afraid to approach Jesus, she sneaks in amongst the crowd to simply touch His garment (verses 27-29).  Jesus then calls her out.  Not to rebuke her, but to commend her faith (verses 30, 34).

I love that the Lord is flexible.  He didn't refuse to heal this woman.  Nor did He refuse to acknowledge her faith, because she was healed in this way.  She lacked courage (verse 33), but He met her in the way that she could, and didn't expect more from her.

Sometimes we're not so flexible with people.  In ministry or just day-to-day life, we allow how we like things, or how we've always done them, to be more important than the people around us.  Jesus shows us how we ought to be.


Prayer:

Lord, that I will be flexible like this!  Not drifting from the precepts of the scriptures, but not dogmatic in the mechanics of ministry or my own preferences.  Allowing You to work as You will, even when it's not how I expect.

Amen