2218 Worth Stopping For

Have you ever felt like maybe you’re bothering God with your prayers? Like perhaps at this point you’re just annoying with your needs and requests? And maybe you feel ignored or overlooked. Like you’re not worthy or important enough for God to stop everything just for you.

Oh girl, let me tell you something – God will stop everything JUST FOR YOU. You’re that important to him, that valuable, that seen, that known, that heard, and that loved.

GOD IS NOT TOO BUSY FOR YOU. YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN TO YOUR SAVIOR.

Have you ever noticed in the gospels during the early stages of Jesus’ ministry, he would perform a personal miracle for one person and he would instruct them, “don’t tell anyone about this.” That always confused me. Why wouldn’t Jesus want them to tell everyone about his miracles and his power? Why wouldn’t he want the news to spread about who he was?

Wasn’t that the whole point? Spread the news. Tell everyone. But instead, many times we see Jesus telling the healed to keep it secret. Why is that?

Well, I experienced it first hand this past Saturday night at the BIG Life Retreat. Fame brings a crowd. Crowds are hard to navigate. You can’t get anywhere when everyone knows who you are!

Picture this – 25 BIG Life girls all decked out as Dolly Parton. So much hair. So much fringe, rhinestones and sparkles. So much lipstick and balloons strategically placed. We walked the main strip of Gatlinburg, Tennessee as a pack, and the crowds swarmed. Cameras were everywhere. Cars were honking. People lined up for photos.

We got all of 1 block down the strip in a matter of 2 hours. “Dollys, over here – Dollys, wait for us – Dollys, we want a photo too – Dollys, my little girl wants to meet you.” WE. WERE. FAMOUS.

And in this moment, I understood why Jesus would tell the very people he had healed, “don’t tell anyone about this.” If Jesus were really known, if everyone knew he was God in human form, he would never get anywhere. The crowds would be so big and so overwhelming, that he would be bombarded.

Jesus had a mission. He had divine appointments with places to be, miracles to perform, and people to bring along. The crowds would be a hindrance to his mission. Although he was God, he was fully human as Jesus. He required rest. He required refueling. He required quiet time with the Father. Hoards of people shouting his name, circling in for his touch would become unmanageable.

Trust me, this 6 foot tall Dolly got a little taste of it. It was insanely fun for 2 hours, but taking off the wig and popping the balloons brought a welcome return to a quiet life of obscurity.

Jesus was not obscure. The word was spreading. He would perform a miracle for a soul in need whom he met along his journey, instruct them not to tell anyone, but they would be so alive in their healing that they would run out and tell everyone they knew about this man who radically changed their life. The man who gave them sight. The man who made them walk. The man who freed them from their demons.

So now there are crowds. Crowds following Jesus. Crowds shouting his name. Crowds pressing in. Crowds making it hard for Jesus to get where he was going. So many people. So many needs. So many requests.

What if there was one in the crowd who felt their need wasn’t worthy of Jesus? What if there was one in the crowd who felt like a nobody, who had suffered quietly, who had been excluded for so long they became accustom to not being good enough? What would Jesus do for them in the crowd?

Let’s see! In Mark 5, Jesus is being followed by a large crowd. An important man has interrupted Jesus begging for him to come to his house and heal his daughter who was dying. So, Jesus is going with this man. A little girl is dying, Jesus is going.

The crowd follows. They’re pressing in on him. Making it hard for him to move forward. (Again, in my 2 hours as Dolly Parton in downtown Gatlinburg, I understand the pressures of the crowd. If a cheap imitation of Dolly gets that much attention, imagine how much the real Savior of the world got!)

Jesus is needed in another place. He’s on his way to somewhere very important. The life of this man’s daughter depends on him getting there, and him getting there fast. But in this crowd is a woman who had been suffering. A woman who felt unworthy of being personally seen. A woman who dared to just reach for Jesus as he passed by.

And Jesus stopped everything. When she reached for him, he stopped. In the crowd, he stopped for the one who reached for him.

Let’s read it together beginning in verse 25, reading through 34:

“A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.’ Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.”

“Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my robe?’ His disciples said to him, ‘Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, your suffering is over.'”

In this day, when a woman was bleeding, she was considered unclean. As unclean, she couldn’t attend worship, she couldn’t attend celebrations, she couldn’t touch others. She had not only been suffering physically for 12 years, she had been suffering emotionally. So she showed up desperate in the crowd that day and she reached for Jesus.

And Jesus knew the difference between a touch of just someone in the crowd who brushed up against him and a touch from a reach of faith. A reach of faith released his power and this woman was immediately healed. Her 12 year problem was gone in an instant as a result of her reach of faith and the release of his power.

AND JESUS STOPPED. He didn’t have to stop. He could have kept walking. Remember, he was going somewhere important. A little girl was dying and he was on his way to her house to heal her. But he stopped and he searched for the one who had reached out in faith. He acknowledged her. He made time for her. He showed her she was worthy of his healing. She was important.

JESUS HAS TIME FOR YOU. HE’S NOT TOO BUSY FOR YOU. HE’S NOT GOING TO JUST PASS BY YOU WHEN YOU REACH OUT TO HIM IN FAITH.

GIRL, REACH FOR HIM! He will stop for you – he will stop everything for you – you’re worth stopping for!

No matter how long this situation has been unchanged and only getting worse, Jesus can change everything. No matter how many people have told you it’s pointless, no matter how many times you’ve tried and failed, no matter how long you’ve been waiting for your breakthrough, DON’T YOU DARE GIVE UP REACHING FOR JESUS!

This woman had suffered for 12 years. Twelve years of pain. Twelve years of disappointment. Twelve years of spending money on solutions that didn’t work. Twelve years of watching life happen around her while she was forced to live on the outside of it. And then, in one moment, everything changed.

Sis, what if your next moment with Jesus changes everything for you, too?

I’m not promising you that Jesus will answer every prayer in the exact way you want or on the timeline you’ve chosen. But I am reminding you that your suffering does not make you invisible to Him. Your long wait does not make you forgotten. Your repeated prayers do not make you annoying. And your need does not make you a burden.

YOU ARE WORTH STOPPING FOR.

You don’t have to compete with the crowd for His attention. You don’t have to make your problems sound more important than someone else’s. You don’t have to clean yourself up before you come to Him. You don’t have to apologize for needing Him again.

Come to Him tired. Come to Him disappointed. Come to Him with the same prayer you’ve prayed a hundred times before. Come to Him when your faith feels strong, and come to Him when all you’ve got left is a trembling hand reaching through the crowd.

JUST REACH FOR JESUS.

So today, stop disqualifying yourself from the attention of your Savior. Stop deciding your needs aren’t important enough to bring to Him. Stop believing the lie that He’s too busy with bigger things to care about the details of your life.

He is the God who holds the universe together, and He is also the God who sees one hurting woman reaching for Him in a crowd. That’s how personal His love is.

GIRL, YOU ARE WORTH STOPPING FOR! You are not an interruption to Jesus. You are not too needy for Jesus. You are not too far gone for Jesus.

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And remember this, carrier of the Holy Spirit, one who is called to do the same things Jesus did – STOP FOR PEOPLE. MAKE TIME FOR THEM! Don’t allow yourself to be so rushed that you can’t stop for someone who needs the Jesus you have inside of you.

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