“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” 

–Mark 7:6 NIV

 

Jesus was talking about the Pharisees here.  They were all show and no go.  They liked to dress the part and walk around judging other people for not being holy enough.  Does that sound like some Christians today?  There are the cliché’s, “Less talk, more action.”  “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  Words are words but where’s the heart?  Where’s the concern, where’s the compassion.  Jesus came into the world with one mission, to die to pay for the sins of the people He loves.  Yeah, He talked too, but His mission was primarily one of action.  He displayed His love by dying as our substitute.  In response, we worship God not just with our words, but with our lives.  One saying puts in this way: “Preach the Good News everywhere you go.  If necessary, use words.”  The Holy Spirit lives in your heart, filling it with the love of Christ.  Get out there and empty it on someone.

Trusting God’s Timing

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 

-Mark 5:25 NIV

 

12 years is a long time.  I’m assuming this woman had prayed about this.  One day she sees Jesus in a crowd and takes matters into her own hands.  She touches Jesus’ robe and is healed!  Do you know what it’s like to wait for God to do something?  Tom Petty’s been telling us for years, “The waiting is the hardest part”.  I think there’s little question that God intentionally makes His people wait.  What that tells us is that there is a purpose to the waiting, otherwise God wouldn’t do it.  We may never fully grasp what the purpose is, but let it comfort you that God is accomplishing His purpose in your life.  I don’t know what life lessons, if any, this bleeding woman learned over her 12 years of suffering, but patience, resolve, and tenacity are the kinds of things I can use more of.  God has a purpose in your waiting.  You may never see it, but God does.  Trust God’s timing.  Thanks to Jesus, one day soon enough we will all be together with Him and waiting will be no more.