by Debbie on August 20, 2016
I was awaken this morning by a fuzzy gray paw and a rather demanding one at that. It wasn’t just the paw being used to wake me up, there was the claw as well. The paw was touching me but the claw was pressing into my skin.You can bet that my cat Moon is not going to let me sleep in. He has to have his breakfast. Not only does Moon want to have his breakfast but I have 4 others cats that are waiting for breakfast as well.
NO, I am not the crazy cat lady, whoever she is. I am a child of God that loves God’s kitty creatures. Every one of my cats have a very special story about being rescued from a not so safe and wonderful life. They were all in need of some TLC. I just happened to be the one that cared enough to help them.
When I don’t respond to the touching of the paw/claw in the mornings, you can bet the meowing will soon begin. Very rarely does Moon give up and just let me sleep. This morning as I got up to go feed the fur family, I thought to myself, “I’ve got to get them fed up.”
I began to ponder that particular idiom “fed up”. Of course I had to google it, right? Google knows everything, well maybe not everything.
When I googled it, the first thing that came up was about a film called “Fed Up”. I read about it and researched it. It was about giving up sugar. They even gave you a challenge to join to get off sugar for 10 days.
Now sugar is something that I am not “fed up” with. Unfortunately sugar is something that I include in my diet everyday. I seem to always have to have something sweet after I eat my main meal. I try to choose something with low fat, low sugar content but never “no sugar” content. How dare anyone suggest that I give up sugar for life or even for 10 days. Ugh! The thought of that makes me very sad. I always look forward to my dessert.
Perhaps it comes from being the daughter of a mother who has always said, ” I have to have something sweet to eat after my meal”. My mother is currently 95 years old but sometimes acts younger. She is not grossly overweight but has a jolly round figure you might say. She plays Mrs. Santa Claus every year and that roll fits her figure nicely for sure.
Why do I bring this up? I don’t really know except perhaps there are things in our lives that we need to be “fed up” with. And being “fed up” with sugar is just one example. Maybe we need to be “fed up” with being unorganized. How about being “fed up” with being late? Or being “fed up” with letting what others think of you control your life? By chance could we just get “fed up” living live our way and decide that it is finally time to try it God’s way? What about getting “fed up” with being an angry person who explodes easily about everything?
In the Bible there is the story of a lady who was “fed up”. She had been bleeding for 12 years and no doctors or medicines had been able to heal her. She was “fed Up” with bleeding so she made up her mind that she was going to touch the cloak of Jesus. Her story appears in three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Her story is worth reading about, I think. So let’s see what each of these gospels say about her issue.
Matthew 9:20-22
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Jesus turned and saw her, “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.
Mark 5:24-34
So Jesus went…and a large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes? “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’
But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Luke 42-48
As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him, And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
No doubt each of the gospel writers told her story a little different. Matthew seemed to keep it short and to the point. Mark seemed to give the most detail and Luke kept it middle of the road, you might say. But one thing that stood out to me was the response, that each of them writes, that Jesus gave to the woman with the issue of blood.
For one, Jesus referred to her as “daughter”. Next is the fact that he made it clear that it was her faith that healed her.
I love the truth of knowing that I am a “daughter” of the most high King. Jesus is the most high King. What a wonderful privilege that is to me. Can you image how she must have felt? Here she was in a crowd of pushy, pressing people and she was the one that had the faith to touch Jesus. And touch Jesus she did. She touched him so much that he referred to her as daughter.
Daughter of the most high King Jesus, is there something that you are “fed up” with today? What can you do about it? Press into Jesus! Say to yourself, “If I just touch Jesus, I will be healed.”
Jesus is no longer with us in physical body form, but he can be touched through our pressing in through prayer. This woman was determined to touch Jesus. Jesus told her it was her faith that healed her. Her faith was in touching Jesus. Our faith should be in touching Jesus as well. When we touch him through our prayers, with our bleeding hearts, he heals us. Don’t ever get “fed up” with praying to the one and only one that can truly set you free from your suffering and give you peace.
My cat Moon is persistent in his waking me up in the morning. He touches me with his paw but then he presses in with his claws. Ouch, that hurts! But it gets my attention and I get up and make sure he is “fed up”. He then goes away in peace, no longer “suffering”. Believe me if Moon doesn’t eat when he ask for food, he will let you know he is “suffering”. His meows get louder and louder and he never gives up, till I go feed him.
Let your prayers press into the most High King Jesus. Never stop pressing into him. Never get “fed up” with praying and asking and crying out to him. He will eventually be touched and will give you what you need and send you away in peace.
Right now my cat Moon is lying peacefully on my mini trampoline. No he has no intentions of using it for exercise. Trust me, he is just taking a peaceful cat nap for now. He is peaceful because he pressed into me and got what he needed.
Think about what you are “fed up” with in your life. Take those things to Jesus in prayer. Press in until you touch him and he heals you because of your faith in him. Peace will come and you will be set free from your suffering.
Dear King Jesus,
Thank you that I am your daughter and I can come to you and press into you through prayer and touch you and be healed. I am ” fed up” with many things in my life right now. Nothing seems to be helping me with these issues. So I bring each one to you and ask that you help me be free from these things that are hindering my life and keeping me from the peace that you desire for me. Here is my “fed up” list: ____________________, ____________________, _______________, ______________________, __________________, ___________________, _____________________,_______________, ___________________, ___________________…
I believe in my heart by faith that you will heal me and set me free from my suffering from these issues and I will be able to go in peace. I thank you in advance for the freedom and healing that is on its way. Send your power out to defeat all of these issues. Thank you Jesus that you are able and willing to do this for me. In your powerful name I pray, Amen.
