Not Take it or Leave It

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

I just read the vignette in Mark’s gospel about the woman who’d been bleeding for 12 years. It’s a story probably familiar to many of you. Here’s a portion of Mark 5, beginning at verse 27:

“After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”

"And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

This was not a halfhearted seeking. The woman did not exhibit a passive ‘take it or leave it’ attitude. No, not her. She meant business.

From one end of the Scriptures to the other, God's message is clear: He is pleased when we mean business in seeking Him. No tepid, lukewarm, take-it- or-leave-it searching.

Isn’t that what you want to do? Seek Him with all your heart?

It’s what I want to do.

Usually.

But not all the time.

Holy Spirit, please continue to change my heart. Grant by Your grace that I may seek Jesus as this woman sought Him, to press through the crowds, just to touch His cloak. Amen.