In my life, I’ve grown the most spiritually when I’ve been blessed to walk alongside a mentor who spoke truth into my mind and heart. In-person mentorship isn’t always feasible, so aren’t we grateful that God has given us the accounts of men and women from biblical times to teach us and encourage us? One of the most inspiring examples is the woman with the issue of blood: reaching for Jesus in faith despite overwhelming obstacles.
In a recent episode of Your Hope-Filled Perspective podcast, Jessica Van Roekel and I discussed a handful of “Inspiring Women of the Bible Who Modeled Faith and Hope.”
The last few years have been particularly painful—physically, emotionally, relationally, financially, and even spiritually, and my closest mentors have been those mentioned in the pages of Scripture. How did they make it through trials? What did they learn? What can they teach us? Today, I wanted to share more in depth about one woman who has inspired and encouraged me through my most painful struggles, so much so that she was discussed at length in my book The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out To God When Pain Overwhelms.
Through my own experiences, as well as walking with thousands of patients through theirs, I’ve learned that pain colors our perspective, robs us of the best parts of us, and challenges us to just barely cling to the hem of Jesus’s garment.
Find Strength in the Woman with the Issue of Blood’s Story
In the Gospel of Luke, we learn of a woman in need of physical healing. After twelve years of infirmity, the woman with the issue of blood knew she desperately needed physical healing.
The story goes like this:
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (Luke 8:42–48)
Recognize the Many Layers of Pain She Endured
We can’t know for certain, but it’s reasonable to suspect that this woman dealt with more than just physical pain from her issue with blood.
- We know she experienced financial pain because scripture tells us she had spent all her money on doctors and only got worse, and likely couldn’t work in her physical condition.
- She likely experienced emotional pain from the years of rejection and ridicule such a disorder promoted in those times.
- Relational pain could conceivably have resulted from others choosing to not associate with an unclean woman, likely leaving her single or divorced.
- Spiritual pain often occurs as a by-product of knowing God could heal but for whatever reason hadn’t.
- Secondary pain may have ensued from those around her accusing her of causing her own suffering, lacking in faith, or not trying their suggested remedies.
- And she may have experienced grief not just from the loss of relationships or opportunities to provide for herself financially but also from the loss of hopes and dreams for her future.
Reach for Jesus in Faith, Even in the Hardest Moments
Despite this woman’s compounded pain, she did something awe-inspiring: She maintained her faith that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’s garment, she would be healed.
I don’t know what your areas of pain are, but I know that in the darkest nights of my pain, the enemy has tempted me to give up my faith in God. He has lied to me repeatedly and caused my heart to question the goodness and sovereignty of my heavenly Father.
This woman suffered for over twelve years, and yet she maintained her faith and put it into action. It is my prayer that we will grow our faith as we walk this pain journey together.
We Either Lean Into God or Walk Away From God
The woman with the issue of blood exhibited great faith in believing that merely touching the threads on the bottom of Jesus’s cloak would be sufficient to physically heal her. In studying her story, I contemplated what else Jesus offered her in that momentary exchange. She longed for physical healing, and she received that. But our God is an abundant God, and Jesus offered her so much more than she could ask for—comprehensive healing for her body, heart, mind, and soul.
“Then he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.’” (Luke 8:48)
In that moment, not only did Jesus physically heal the woman, but he saw her, he validated her and her worth, he restored her ability to have relationship with others, he offered her a future, and he gave her a testimony, none of which she would have experienced simply in the absence of pain and suffering.
Perhaps in our longing for healing, God is beckoning us to exercise our faith, to come to him and touch the hem of his garment regardless of who or how many are present, while continuing to believe and wait.
Jesus repeatedly states throughout Scripture, “Come to me . . .” (e.g., Matt. 11:28; Luke 18:16). He still beckons today, and the choice is ours. Perhaps when we feel abandoned by God, we are the ones who are missing seeing him or who have walked away and need to look again or turn back to him. Like that woman, will we push through whatever is coming against us, to reach for Him, the only One who can heal in more ways than we can ever conceive?
Faith That Pushes Through Rejection to Reach Jesus
The woman with the issue of blood merely needed to touch the hem of Jesus’s garment, and he never shamed her for it. He loved her and healed her. Today we reach for his hem.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recount the story of the gentile woman from Caesarea who endured a disease that caused her to hemorrhage for twelve years. In her culture, women who bled were considered unclean and were ostracized.
Recalling childhood bullying and ostracizing, my heart is grieved for this woman and the pain she endured physically, emotionally from the shame and loneliness, relationally from the isolation she experienced, financially from her likely inability to work, and spiritually from her disqualification from participating in religious ceremonies and customs.
Her physical impurity essentially excluded her from normal life and left her rejected by society and many of the individuals around her. In Mark’s account, he notes that nothing improved her situation, and it only worsened over time (Mark 5:26). P. 92
The account of this woman’s plight is sandwiched within the greater story of Jairus calling Jesus to help his ailing daughter. The woman’s community considered her a bruised reed—broken and worthless.
Yet she demonstrated great faith.
Her impurity as well as the sheer mass of the crowd made it virtually impossible for her to approach Jesus, yet she displayed great resolve and determination to reach the least-noticed aspect of his attire. Her painful desperation made her willing, and she received great reward for her faith-filled efforts. Jesus stopped on the way to Jairus’s home, acknowledged that power had left him, and attended to the most rejected woman in the crowd.
One Faith-Filled Encounter with Jesus Changed Everything
Prior to her encounter with Jesus, she had exhausted all her resources without success, but an encounter with Jesus forever altered the trajectory of the rest of her life. We may not know the woman’s name, but we know her situation and her painful need, and Jesus ensured that we would know of her faith for the rest of time.
The lesson to us in our pain? Against all odds, despite what others say or how they believe, keep walking in faith, believing in God’s power to heal, while reaching for the hem of his garment. God is a rewarder of faith.
I applaud this woman because she tried everything in her own strength to heal herself, including exhausting her physical and financial resources, and Scripture says she only worsened (see Mark 5:26). When she exhausted every other avenue of healing, she engaged her faith and reached out to the Great Physician.
In her weakened, frail condition, she pushed through the crowd, determined to touch Jesus’s hem. She could get no lower nor any further from making eye contact with the Master. The defining moment in this woman’s life occurred when, lacking in her own strength, she reached out for Jesus’s hem in faith, and his strength went out from him into her, healing her of the pain that had plagued her for over a decade.
Reach for Jesus in Faith—God Is Bigger Than Your Pain
This story so beautifully exemplifies our dependence on God and yet how important our faith is as we reach out to him to do what only he can do. Perhaps instead of viewing our dependence on God in a negative light, we can see it as the avenue he uses to draw us to him.
So easy to forget yet critical to remember, God is bigger than our pain. Bigger than our hurt. Bigger than our brokenness. Bigger than our suffering. Bigger than our doubts. Bigger than our discouragement. Bigger than our scars. And because God is involved, our story and the impact it has is bigger than our pain and bigger than what we can see now. Our story isn’t over, and it isn’t limited to our pain. That’s the perspective that God brings.
Do you ever feel like you can’t hold on any longer? Hold on just a little tighter, my friend. Like the woman with the issue of blood who knew she would be well if she could just reach the hem of Jesus’s garment. Reach for his hem . . . he’ll meet you there.
Reaching with You,
Dr. Michelle
*Portions of the above are an excerpt from The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out To God When Pain Overwhelms by Dr. Michelle Bengtson © Revell Publishers, used with permission.
The woman with the issue of blood reached for Jesus in faith—and He met her with healing. No matter what you're facing, He sees you too. Will you reach for Him today? Share on X She suffered for 12 years, but her faith in Jesus changed everything. The woman with the issue of blood teaches us to trust God even in pain. Read her powerful story! Share on X
The Hem of His Garment
Now Available!
We all experience pain from time to time, and not just physical pain, but also emotional pain, relational pain, spiritual pain, grief and loss.
I’ve been there. I’ve experienced each one of those types of pain. I’ve asked the hard questions. I’ve searched the scriptures for biblical examples and lessons learned through pain and suffering. And I’m sharing a fresh perspective in my new book “The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out to God When Pain Overwhelms.”
Here’s what Carol Kent, Founder of Speak Up Ministries, Speaker and Author of When I Lay My Isaac Down (NavPress), had to say about The Hem of His Garment: “The Hem of His Garment sings hope in the minor key. It is an honest, profound, and deeply moving labor of love that will invite you to weep, worship, and pray. This book is a treasure for those who live in constant pain—and for those who long for a resource to give to friends and family who are hurting.”
The Hem of His Garment: Reaching Out to God When Pain Overwhelms is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook.com, Books-A-Million, and other fine book retailers.
Click here to learn more: The Hem of His Garment.
Dear Dr Michelle
Thank you for your post…it is very timely. I’m facing many challenges finding work, finances, etc I’m planting seeds but no growth to be seen. My faith is being tested, I must persevere and know it is strengthening I could do with a break though. I love receiving your messages, Bless you.
Dear Kim,
Challenges are never fun…especially when we don’t see change happening. But I encourage you to keep persevering, because God promises good things come as a result. Keep the faith. Hope Prevails! Dr. Michelle
Do we have any idea of what exactly her bleeding was? I heard it preached that it was menstrual bleeding, but do we know that?
Trine,
Based on contextual cues, like her being shunned by her community and made to isolate, I believe it was very likely her menstrual cycle.
Hope Prevails,
Dr. Michelle
What is your answer when someone has waited and waited dozens of years for healing, has prayed/read/worshipped/believed for healing, has ASKED multiple times to be healed.. and yet, they are STILL sick.??
Robyn,
Thanks for asking.
My answer is that there is no single answer that fully explains why one person is healed and another is not.
As Christians, we often want a formula because formulas feel safer than mystery. We want to believe that if we pray enough, believe enough, confess enough Scripture, repent enough, forgive enough, or persevere long enough, healing will come. Yet Scripture does not support the idea that healing is guaranteed in this life for every believer who does all the “right” things.
The Bible contains miraculous healings, but it also contains faithful sufferers.
The Apostle Paul prayed repeatedly about his “thorn in the flesh,” and God’s answer was not removal but grace: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul was not lacking faith. He was not harboring secret sin. He was not failing to pray correctly.
Timothy apparently struggled with ongoing physical ailments. Paul did not tell him to simply believe harder. He offered practical care (1 Timothy 5:23).
Trophimus was left sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20).
Even Jesus, in healing some, did not heal everyone in Israel.
So when someone says, “I’ve waited decades. I’ve prayed. I’ve trusted. I’ve done everything I know to do, and I’m still sick,” I don’t think the first response should be an explanation. I think it should be compassion.
I think we sit with them in the tension and say, “That is incredibly hard.”
Because it is.
There is a particular kind of grief that comes from living with unanswered prayers year after year. Not just the suffering itself, but the repeated disappointment. The hope. The waiting. The wondering if you’re doing something wrong. The fear that maybe God has forgotten. The loneliness of watching others receive what you’ve begged God for.
I would never tell such a person that their illness proves a lack of faith.
I would never tell them that if they just believed more, healing would come.
I would never tell them that their suffering means God is displeased with them.
The book of Job alone should make us cautious about those conclusions.
What I do believe is that healing is bigger than cure.
Sometimes God heals physically in this life.
Sometimes He heals emotionally while the physical condition remains.
Sometimes He heals relationships.
Sometimes He heals the wounds that suffering creates.
Sometimes He sustains a person with supernatural strength that makes no sense apart from His presence.
And ultimately, every believer’s healing is guaranteed, but not every believer’s healing is immediate.
The Christian hope is not merely that God heals. The Christian hope is that one day He makes all things new. The final answer to suffering is not found at the end of a medical treatment plan but in the resurrection.
That may sound unsatisfying to someone who is hurting today, and I understand why. I’ve been there…waiting for my own healing. I’m there now. And I just recorded an upcoming podcast episode about disappointment. A future promise does not remove present pain. Yet the New Testament repeatedly points suffering believers toward the certainty that this brokenness is not the end of their story.
For someone who has waited decades, I would also suggest that faith may look different than we often imagine. We tend to define faith as believing God will heal us. Sometimes faith is continuing to trust God’s character when He has not healed us.
Faith says, “I know God can heal.”
Trust says, “Even if He doesn’t, I will not conclude that He is absent, uncaring, or unfaithful.”
That is not lesser faith. In many ways, it may be the deeper faith.
If someone asked me, “Why hasn’t God healed me after all these years?” my most honest answer would be: I don’t know.
I know God heals some people.
I know God does not heal everyone in this life.
I know faithful, godly people can suffer for decades.
I know Jesus wept at human suffering.
And I know that unanswered prayers are not evidence of unanswered love.
Sometimes the most truthful response is not a tidy explanation but a faithful presence within the mystery. “I don’t know why your healing hasn’t come, but I do not believe your suffering means God has abandoned you.”
For many who have waited a very long time, that may be the beginning of a more honest conversation with God than trying to force an answer Scripture itself does not give.
Hope Prevails,
Dr. Michelle
I’m going through a constant bleeding myself and searched for this remarkable story as a reminder of God’s healing power. I haven’t been bleeding as long as this woman but it’s been frightening and at times debilitating. I’ve experienced this 3 other times in my life and doctors couldn’t help or take me seriously but God restored my health even when I was not walking with Him at that time. I work part time and I’m struggling financially and massively stressed out all the time, I’m single and always worried hormonal issues and bleeding could be a problem for marriage and pregnancy. I try not to focus on these things and work on my faith in God and that He can heal me and give me an abundant future but sometimes doubt does creep in. When I read this woman’s story and looking at my past struggles, I know more than ever that this time I’m truly not alone because Holy Spirit dwells in me and I feel encouraged that in God’s perfect time He will bring complete restoration to my life!
Elsa, I’m so glad this historical woman’s testimony has encouraged you in your current situation. I’m sure there were days, weeks, months, and years when she felt quite discouraged, frustrated, and perhaps even despaired at times. But ultimately her pain and physical condition resulted in her pursuing Jesus even more. Because she did, she can be an encouragement to us today. Keep the faith in our One true healer.
Hope Prevails,
Dr. Bengtson