Dead Ends

 25And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse. 27When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up through the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.… Mark 5:25-27....."He takes us to the dead end in order to get us to the place of deliverance." Kerry Shook

Dead ends. They come about in life. Often for some of us. For many of us. If you believe that God is sovereign in all things, can you also believe that He may well have engineered circumstances in order to bring you to that dead end?

The woman in Mark 5 was at such a dead end. The full context of the passage tells us that she had a menstrual issue that made her unclean under Jewish law. This meant that she was denied a normal social and religious life. If someone came near to her, she was required to tell them that she was in such a state so that they might not be contaminated by contact with her. Further, she had desperately sought healing for the issue, spending all she had on medical treatments that had not helped her in the least. She'd tried everything and she'd received nothing. She was at a dead end, but at the dead end was Jesus Christ.

There is so much beauty in this story. She who is unclean and told to be apart from all, approaches He who is total purity, desperate that He might bring healing to her. No one wanted her there. Likely no one even noticed she was there. Even so, at her dead end, she reached out and touched the hem of the garment that the Savior, who was passing by, wore. With all who were pressing in on Him, He noticed, felt that touch, and in that touch, healing flowed out of Him, and into her. She was free. She was clean. She was whole. She was His. Would any of this have happened if she had not come to this dead end? I don't think so. As Shook says, He uses our dead ends to bring about our deliverance.....if we'll have it. If we'll choose it.

There will be dead ends in life for all of us. In them, we're faced with choosing the result that the enemy wished for us, deeper despair and defeat, or, in Christ, healing hope. Another dead end, or, His open door. We will either go on, "spending" all we have on that which can never make us whole, or simply yielding ourselves up to the One who makes all things new.

Are you at a dead end? In your marriage, your ministry, your dreams, desires, and goals? Can you believe that He has brought you to this place that you might reach out, laying hold of HIm, and discovering that He has already laid hold of you? I'm a "dead end survivor." I have come to a number of them, in my personal and ministerial life. In some of those places, it took me some time to realize it was He who'd brought me there, but when I finally did, I found Him in the midst of them. He made the dead end my place of deliverance. He always will. What will you do with yours? Dead ends are inevitable in life. So is His deliverance if we will trust Him for it. Will you trust Him? Lay hold of the One who is already laying hold of you. Be free. Be whole. Be His.

Blessings,

Pastor O