Encounters with Jesus – Thursday

A Risk of Faith

Scripture: Mark 5:24-34 (The Message)

 A woman who had suffered a condition of haemorrhaging for twelve years—a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before—had heard about Jesus. She slipped in from behind and touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.” The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with. At the

same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His disciples said, “What are you talking about? With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you’re asking, ‘Who touched me?’ Dozens have touched you!” But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it.

The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him and gave him the whole story.

Jesus said to her, “Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.”

Encounter with Jesus:

• What is going on in the passage?
• Take time to imagine you are there ‘in the story’ as it happens. What do you see, hear, smell? If you were one of the people in the passage, who would you be? Why?
• Still imagining you are there…
  • What question would you like to ask Jesus?
  • What was/is Jesus’ response?

Now, what does it mean for us?

It is important to remember that the lady in this story could have lived for a very long time in isolation, being shunned by her whole community. She would probably have felt very vulnerable and lonely. Many of our young people today also feel very vulnerable and lonely. Next week is Children’s Mental Health awareness week. Do you know any children or young people who are lonely, or suffer with mental health problems? Wouldn’t it be great if they too could hear about Jesus and find a way through their crowded lifestyle to encounter Him?

To do today:

1. If you know any children or young people who are lonely, or suffer with mental health problems maybe you could think about how you can help them? Prayer is a good place to start, but sometimes it is not the only thing we can do to help.
2. If you have any friends who work in a school context, maybe you could ask them what problems their school has with mental health issues and then pray for them too.

Did you know…?

Niscu trains local volunteers to simply listen to pupils in schools, helping school management support early intervention for many pupils. This releases more time for trained school staff to support pupils with more difficult issues. Since September 2025, we have listened to 215 individual pupils in 1493 listening sessions across 11 schools. If you are interested in praying for this, then please contact jane.callow@niscu.org.uk to receive our termly newsletter and updates.