His Story, Her Story

I was just 18 years old, fighting for my country in the Iran-Iraq war, when a bomb exploded a few feet from my head.  I was so badly traumatized that for 24 years I had to take 720 pills a month.  If I didn't take my medication on time, I would cause problems for myself and those around me, without realizing what I was doing.  I never had peace and I was a chain smoker.  I went to specialists for treatment, and they all agreed that I had no choice but to take the pills for the rest of my life.  I sent my files to doctors abroad, but got the same verdict. 

I tried doing all the duties and practices I could think of to appeal to God.  I traveled thousands of kilometers to pray and give offerings in order to receive healing.  But nothing changed. 

One day a Christian invited me to his house church.  When I went there, I saw that they worshiped God and asked for their needs in a very simple language, like a child who is asking something from his father.  They were worshiping God in Persian, not Arabic, and I liked it. 

I heard a voice inside me saying: 'Trust me and go forward and you will receive healing.'  I was shocked and resisted.  But I finally gave in.

The pastor prayed for me, and I began to weep.  I never cried, but that day I wept until the carpet was wet.  Then I heard the voice again saying: 'You are healed.'

I went home with joy.  My wife brought my medications for me to take, but I refused.  I have been completely healthy since.*

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A large crowd followed and pressed around [Jesus].  And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.  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.  When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, " If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."  Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.  He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, " and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.  He said to her, "Daughter, your faith as healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from you suffering."**

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In both of these stories there are two helpless individuals.  Their health problems cost them a great deal.  They did what any of us would naturally do: first, they exhausted all medical options, and second, they both believed incorrectly that doing something religious would heal them.  The man tried to exchange prayers and offerings for good health.  The woman believed almost superstitiously that touching a holy man's garment would restore her health.  How often to I try to bargain with God when I am desperate?  What objects have I wrongly placed holy value on? 

In both stories, Jesus responds to their physical needs through healing and their spiritual needs by leading them into true faith.  Both fall before the Lord and pour out their hearts.  Jesus embraces them as his own children.  The man followed the example of the believers and prayed like a child talking to his Father.  The woman is called "daughter" by Jesus.    Then Jesus sends them in peace, and they are both freed from their suffering.

What glorious examples of what Christ does for all of us when we simply come to him.  These two both had lost hope in what the world (of medicine) had to offer, and they both had to acknowledge that their healing came through believing in Jesus and not some object or action.  This is the beginning of true faith.

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

{galations 3:26} 

*Iran: Christian news and insight from Elam Ministries, Issue 5, Spring 2012 (Article: Desperate Situations... Supernatural Answers)

**Mark 5:24-34 (NIV)