Daily Worship

Belonging to each-other

Fiona Campbell October 16, 2014 0 0

Mark 5: 24-34

Jesus went . . . and all the people followed, crowding around him.   A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve 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 was no better. In fact, she had grown 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.      He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

Mark 5 vs 24 – 34 (New Living Translation)

Lord, you have told us what our priorities should be if we want to belong to you –
to “love God and our neighbour as ourselves”. 
It’s clear that the second is as important as the first in our life with you.
Help me, Lord, to be willing to give of myself to others, so that I truly ‘belong’ to them, as much as to you.
This is hard challenge, Lord, especially when there are people who drain us in their need for help or support.
Like you, Lord, I’ve felt strength ebbing away as I tried to share someone else’s difficulties, and wondered if I could help at all.
Help me to know that you do not ask me to do anything, you will not equip me to do; that your strength and power are sufficient for my needs and those of the person I try to help.
Remind me that I am your servant – literally your hands in this world – and a channel for your peace, prayer and healing. Help me to accept the needs of others and give to them freely, as I will receive whatever I need from you, and help another into faith and fullness.
And when I am in need, Lord, may fear or pride not prevent me from seeking and receiving help from others.   
Just as your love supports me, so the support and care of both friends and strangers is their gift to me.
Help me to accept it graciously and learn new lessons about belonging to others.
Amen