How strong if your faith?

24So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "
32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Mark 5:24-31

There's something I find very interesting about this passage. Jesus did not take credit for healing this woman. In fact, he says she did it herself. Her bleeding did stop because Jesus layed hands on her, or because his disciples prayed over her. She was healed immediately because she herself touched Jesus's clothes. Does this mean that every part of Christ (including his clothes) contained the almighty power of God? Well, I do believe that's true, but I think what Mark was trying to say in this passage is that this sick woman didn't just think that every part of Jesus was God, she knew it. She strongly believed that if she were to touch Jesus a bit of God's healing power would fall off of his robe, and into her hands. She was healed by her own faith. She knew that Christ was the Son of God, and she knew he could heal her. All she wanted was to touch a small piece of her Lord's robe, and that was it. She would no longer suffer. Can anyone else see how amazing that is?

When Jesus asked who touched him one of his disciples reacted like he was a mad man. There were tons of people all around him, and there's no doubt that all of them were trying (or succeeding) to touch him. But only one of those people were healed. What does that say about everyone else's faith? Maybe they just wanted to touch the messiah so they could tell their friends about it later. Who knows? But this one woman had enough faith in Christ to be healed by touching him. You know what else is amazing about this? Jesus felt it. He knew this woman's faith as soon as she touched him. Verse 30 says that Christ felt that power leave him. Out of the hundreds of people touching him he only felt one.

I know I shouldn't be envious of anyone, but I am envious of this woman's faith. I want to have a faith so strong that I can reach out to Jesus and be healed. I want a faith so strong that Christ himself can feel it. I always ask God for strength in my prayers, I'm sure many of you do the same. But this verse shows that the strength we are searching for is there! We just have to have the faith to reach out for it, and then one great day we will hear the voice of our Lord tell us, "Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."