What Are You Thinking?

For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” [Mark 5.28] 

What are you thinking?

Many think: "If I can just get this loan, I can make the payments." Or, "If I just stay insured, I can avoid tragedy." Or, "If I just get regular check-ups and take my prescriptions, I will live longer." Or, "If I just have the latest technology, my life will be easier."

The woman described above didn't even presume to touch Jesus Himself - only His robe. She was so fixated on the power of God Jesus had become known for that she reasoned that to touch just His robe would heal her... And what she thought was right.

This woman had already spent all she had on doctors, but to no avail. What does this tell us about what we spend? Debt, insurance, medicine and technology all cost us dearly. I would challenge the reader of this article to imagine your life without the expense of debt (costly interest to borrow money to pay for something you cannot otherwise afford), insurance (costly payments in fear (anticipation?) of tragedy or loss), medicine (costly treatments and drugs (often with adverse side-effects requiring other costly counteractive drugs) to increase quality and length of life) and technology (costly gadgetry that promises ease of life but often requires the previous three: debt to buy it, insurance to keep it, and medicine so as to keep working to pay for it all). How different might your life look without these expenses? What are you thinking?

All the while, God's Word promises wealth, protection, health and productivity to those who yield to the obedience of faith. What are you thinking?

Would it not make more sense to put all our efforts into touching the hem of Jesus' robe instead of spinning the circular treadmill of today's "conveniences" that all "conveniently" have costly co-dependencies upon each other? What are you thinking?

Our impatient fixation on the idols of debt, insurance, medicine and technology prevents our simply touching Jesus' robe. Like the woman of this story, far too many of us spend every dollar we have in support of these "conveniences" (idols promising provision, protection, health and ease) that are anything but "convenient" in their unyielding demand that we tirelessly work to pay their costly price tags. What are you thinking?

Oh, to just touch the hem of Jesus' garment instead! Are we however in such hopelessness that the woman's story teaches us nothing about our costly idols? Her story teaches much, but do we believe it? Do we believe just touching the hem of Jesus' robe would meet our need? If so, how do we touch His garment today since He is no longer walking this earth? What are you thinking?

How we touch Jesus' robe is found in these passages from John's Gospel:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1.1]

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. [John 1.14]

 What are you thinking? 

The same faith that touched Jesus' garment is the same faith that preserved Daniel in the lion's den. It's the same faith that parted the Red Sea. Why? Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever - He is God's Word. Every time we open the Bible, we are touching Jesus' robe. The problem lies however in the fact that we "touch His robe" mindlessly without thinking to ourselves, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” Why? What are you thinking?

People today "touch His robe" mindlessly thinking, "If I touch His robe and I am not healed, I will just have to go back to the doctor and pay for it somehow... (thank God for debt, insurance, medicine and technology, right?)" What are you thinking?

The implications of what is said here are huge. In fact, such "foolishness thinking" followed will land any otherwise normal member of society in great criticism as a radical. People will scold the "foolish radical thinker" while mindlessly defending their idols - many times even with Bible in hand (Jesus' robe). What are you thinking?

As a student of God's Word, it is becoming clearer by the day that we have become so groomed by the world, that worldly thinking is all we know (Christian or otherwise). Worldly thinking is, at its core, full of, and therefore based on, idolatry (trusting in anything or anyone besides God for that which God promised to provide). What are you thinking?

The woman with the issue of blood is Bible proof that worldly thinking is wrong thinking. This woman's desperate change of thinking changed her life. What are you thinking?

Father, forgive us for holding onto the world's idols (worldly thinking) while thoughtlessly holding Jesus' full embodiment as Your very Word in our hands.