When You Want to Give Up, Go to Jesus

Revelation Wellness graciously hosted me on their blog recently, so I’m sharing it with you today:

Where do you want to give up? What have you tried and tried and tried again, and want to throw in the towel, because it feels hopeless? What if this time, though, things could be different?

“And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” Mark 5:25-26

I’ve had an abdominal separation for five years. It started with my firstborn. I’ve tried dozens of programs, two rounds of pelvic floor and physical therapy, did all the right exercises and avoided the wrong ones. I’ve used essential oils, increased my gelatin intake to support connective tissue restoration, bought belly bands, girdles, and splints. But with my second pregnancy, it only grew worse.

I found myself thinking, “Am I just wasting my time? If it didn’t work before, what makes me think it will work now?” Unbelief leads to inaction. I slacked off on my physical therapy exercises that week. My unchecked log sheet remained empty, but I was full of resentment. I thought, It will always be this way. The past is proof. The hippocampus in my brain, which relates new input to past experiences, confirmed from stored memories that my previous attempts did not work.

“She had heard the reports about Jesus…” -Mark 5:27

I heard the Lord reminding me of His good works during my pregnancy. I did not suffer with insomnia the whole time like I expected. I did not have to submit to traditional labor and delivery interventions like I thought. I did not have a colic-oppressed baby as I had feared. I did not need to base the future on the past. God did make all things new each time. God did restore hope. And hope is the anchor of action.

I was beginning to think this time could be different. Not just because I had a new physical therapist, but because I had renewed hope.

The bleeding woman “…came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.'” -Mark 5:27b-28

Hope is attractive! This woman drew near to Jesus.

I picked up my new therapy program and began doing my homework exercises faithfully.

Faithfully: full of faith that God can do a new thing. That it wouldn’t always be this way.

Faithfully: because I have hope, I will keep trying because I believe more in the power of God than the imprisonment of my condition.

Faithfully: faith that when Jesus made me whole, I would be made well.

And I wouldn’t know healing if I didn’t put feet to my faith.

“Jesus turned, and seeing her…” -Matthew 9:22a

“The doctor will see you now,” is much different than “Jesus sees you.” Doctors and therapists are trained to see the physical symptoms, but Jesus looks on the heart. Put yourself in the shoes of the bleeding woman, surrounded by crowds.

He turns around, and He sees you. He looks straight into your eyes and sees your history of hurt. He sees your fruitless efforts and frustration, He sees your desperation to feel better.

” ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well.” -Matthew 9:22b

The word He speaks for well is sózó, from sōs. It means to save, to deliver out of danger and into provision. SOS, Jesus! What did the bleeding woman need to be saved from? He tells her “Take heart, daughter,” instead of the familiar words she may have heard from others: “Give up, woman.” He saved her from her disheartened spirit and placed her squarely in the hope that only He could give!

Get on your feet, daughter, He has made you well.

The daughters of the Lord will not give up. The daughters of the Lord will draw near to Jesus and reach out for rescue. The daughters of the Lord will go to the empty tomb and be filled with hope.

“Hope begins in the dark. The stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing the dawn will come. You wait, and watch, and work. You don’t give up.”
-Anne Lamott

I will draw near, believing that put-together abs won’t heal my disheartened spirit, but that Jesus will, and that’s what having a strong core is really all about. I know that in Christ I have been made truly well. Even now He whispers with a heavenly wink, it won’t always be like this, it will be better.