Determination

The story of the woman with the issue of blood has always been one of my most favorite scripture passages in the bible.  For what we know is the fact that this woman had a bleeding disease which she had been dealing with for twelve years.  It was like a permanent menstruation cycle.  And we also know that she had been to every doctor and specialist in town.  She had tried all kinds of medications, experimental drugs and treatments.  She tried holistic treatments.  Yet nothing made her condition any better.  Instead everything the doctors were doing, the text says was only making her pain worse, not just physically.  I can imagine it was also making her worse mentally, emotionally and possibly even spiritually.  She had even capped out all of her insurance coverage and spent all of her money, she was broke.  And to make matters worse, her bleeding continued.  I mean it was like her life was literally draining right out of her body day by day.  She was headed toward death.  That was until she heard about a man named Jesus who was going to be passing her way.  And I don’t know how she heard about him.  Perhaps she saw a post on social media.  Maybe she caught a glimpse of a story about him on the news.  Perhaps she read the newspaper or saw him on a billboard.  However, she found out about him, the fact is she knew He was her only hope.  Think about this, it would have taken everything in this woman just to get out of the bed.  Her bleeding would have made her weak; she would have had no energy at all.  Just getting out of bed would have worn her out.  I mean look at her determination.  She pressed her way through the crowd, and she touched his garment.  And here it is, when she touched his garment, she did not expect for nothing to happen.  She expected for something great to happen.  She expected to be healed.  And it happened because of her great determination.  And you know what, this woman is really teaching us something powerful for expecting great things means that we must have great determination.  The only problem, is the fact that sometimes we allow hard times and setbacks to discourage and defeat us.  If we are honest, there are times when we have tried everything we know to fix our situation.  We have read all of the books, listened to motivational messages, received advice from great sources, yet our situation does not get any better.  And instead of expecting anything great, we end up expecting bad things to happen.  And I am here to tell us that I have learned in my life to be determined.  No matter what I am going through, whether it is in my career or at home.  I do not stop or turn back until I have accomplished what I set out to accomplish.  And watch this, when I fall down, I simply get back up.  Think of a postage stamp.  A postage stamp has a powerful attribute that we need to imitate.  They stick to one thing until they get there.  Determination is the glue that will get us to our destination.