Matthew 14:34-36
And after crossing over they came upon the land of Gennesaret. And after the men of that place recognized
Him, they sent out into all the neighboring places and they brought to Him all
the ones who have illnesses. And they
asked Him in order that they should only touch the edges of His garment. And all the ones who touch were being brought
into health.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
The work of God is never done. Jesus left one crowd after the feeding of the
five thousand. He gets a few moments to
pray before needing to rescue His disciples from a violent storm on the
sea. Now they get to the other side and
people start to recognize Jesus. The
opportunity for grace and mercy is always before Jesus.
Do you concur with this assessment? Is the opportunity for God’s grace always
before you, too?
Second Thought:
Notice the people’s reaction to Jesus. They see Jesus coming and it is an
opportunity to be restored. This is the
positive side of the story. Jesus does
have what it takes to heal us. On the
other hand, the people come for physical restitution. They just want to touch His cloak. They just want their physical ailments to be
made better. Their primary concern – or at
least their first concern – is the physical world and their physical
needs. This is another important lesson
to learn. In order to reach people, we
often need to reach the physical needs of the people around us first. We typically have no chance of going deeper
into a person until we have demonstrated ability to make a difference in the
physical life of the person.
What needs are present around you now? How can you meet some of those needs?
Third Thought:
The people only need to touch the
fringe of Jesus’ garments to be healed.
So we will end this study on a really high note. The edges of Jesus are powerful enough to
change our life. Jesus’ power – God’s
power – is so incredible that even the edge of His power is beyond our ability
to understand.
How is this thought inspiring? What does it really mean that the mere touch
of the edge of Jesus’ cloak can heal?
Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 15:1-7
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