FAITH’S PRODUCTIVE EXPECTATION

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole – Matthew 9:21

EXPECTATIONS hinge on PROMISES, and on the integrity, resources and ability of the one who gave the promises. If God made you a promise, then you have the right to expect that the promise will be fulfilled. God is not a man that He should tell a lie. There is no promise He makes that He cannot bring to pass (Numbers 23:19). The faith of the woman with the issue of blood is a unique case of expectation hinged simply on the fact that “she had heard of Jesus” (Mk.5:27). She might not even have received a direct personal promise from Him! Yet, she connected her faith to the little she had heard about Jesus and it worked for her! Hers was a miracle-producing expectation that received the Lord’s salutation: “Daughter, THY FAITH hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague” (Mk.5:34). Although the Lord Jesus Christ is the Healer, on this occasion, He attributed the woman’s miraculous healing to HER FAITH – her highly expectant faith! Here was a case of Faith’s dynamic and productive expectation.

There were more than enough reasons for this woman’s expectation to have been dampened. First, there was nothing to show that her healing was part of the Lord’s prior plan. Jesus was headed for Jairus’ house, to heal his little daughter who was “at the point of death” (Mk.5:23). That was sufficient reason for the Master not to entertain any form of interruption; but this remarkable Faith intercepted the Lord and caught the miracle on the way! Second, the multitude following and thronging Jesus were a formidable barrier; but she did not allow the “press” to depress her! She sought the Lord with great expectation and got what she wanted – a miracle of deliverance and healing.

To compound the situation, the record of negative experiences with physicians who left her worse than they met her, could have caused her to give up and accept her ‘fate’; but not this woman of aggressive expectation! If the little she had heard about Jesus could work for her, what are you making of the much you know and have tasted of the Lord? If the barrier of the crowd could not ‘break’ her, why are you allowing little inconveniences to discourage you from holding on in faith? If her past could not debar her, why allow past experiences of failure hinder you from your glorious future?

Ultimately, her expectation broke the backbones of all barriers. “For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole” Mark 5:28. She VISUALIZED and VOCALIZED her very specific expectation of being healed: “I SHALL be whole.” Nothing was left to chance. It was not “maybe, I can be whole.” This was FAITH IN ACTION – “I touch; He heals”! What corresponding action are you ready and willing to take for the miracle you are expecting from the Lord? That is what gives “substance” to your hope; that is the evidence of your expectation (Heb. 11:1).