“God has a lot on his plate—people with cancer, marriages falling apart, teenagers battling addiction—and I don’t want to be clogging the lines in case somebody with something really important is trying to get through.” I’ve heard that line, or some version of it, any number of times as I’ve talked with people about how to experience God’s power through prayer. We don’t want to “bug” God with our problems. And if our particular worry or pain has gone on for a long time, we may wonder if God has some secret reason for our suffering.
Maybe, we think, we are just supposed to endure it.
Is that what the crippled woman thought when she went into the synagogue where Jesus was teaching? She’d had what the Bible calls a “disabling spirit” for 18 years. Reading her story in Luke 13:10-17, my mind swirled with questions: Was she hopeful? Discouraged? Resigned to her situation? Did she think Jesus could heal her? Did she wonder if he cared?
And could Jesus even see her in the crowd?
He could, of course. And when he did, Jesus stopped what he was doing—he interrupted his own sermon—to call her over. “Woman,” he said, “you are freed from your disability.” (Luke 13:12)
And with that, the woman in the synagogue stood up straight and praised God.
Three Ways to Experience God’s Power
The Bible doesn’t indicate that this nameless woman ever asked to be healed; all we know is that she was “there.” She was at the synagogue where Jesus was teaching. And that, I think, is the first key to experiencing God’s transformational power: Proximity.
We don’t have to know how to pray or what to ask for when we come to Jesus; we can simply show up. It doesn’t matter what our problem is—whether we are crippled by sickness, fear, addiction, uncertainty, or anything else. When we draw close to God, we discover a place of confidence and security. “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me,” King David wrote. “With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:7-8)
But proximity isn’t the only key to experiencing God’s power. We also have to be willing to listen for his voice—and respond.
When Jesus stopped teaching and called the crippled woman to come forward, do you think she was nervous? Worried about being the center of attention? Concerned about bugging Jesus, especially in front of a crowd—even as she longed to experience his power? I can imagine her feeling all of these things (particularly in a culture that did not value healthy women, let alone those who were sick or disfigured), but she didn’t let any of that hold her back.
Instead, she said responded to Christ. She said yes.
The woman positioned herself to be proximate to the Lord. She heard his call and said yes. And then, as she experienced freedom in Christ and stood upright for the first time in nearly two decades, the third step just came naturally: She glorified God, in whose presence she found “fullness of joy.” (Psalm 16:11)
Drawing near to God, responding to his invitation, and acknowledging his provision with praise are three keys to experiencing—and enjoying—God’s presence. But they are not, for me, the biggest takeaway from this woman’s story.
For me, the most remarkable part of the story—and the part that has been transformational for my prayer life—is that the woman could not actually see Jesus, at least not like the others could. Depending on which Bible translation you prefer, she was “bowed together,” “bent over double”, or not able to “look upwards at all.” I imagine this gal longed to behold the Lord’s face but, hunched as she was, she could glimpse only his feet.
God knows the way that you take
Job might have understood how she felt. In his suffering, he desperately wanted to see God—to know what God was doing, to plead his case, to get some sort of answer—but he could not find him. “When he is at work in the north,” Job wrote, “I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
“But,” Job continued, “he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:9-10)
I don’t know about you, but when life has me weighed down and bent over (that is to say, when it’s a struggle to look upwards at all), or when I can’t perceive God or make sense out of what he is doing, those words breathe hope into my soul: I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take.
God knows the way that we take. And as we consider Christ’s tenderness in hitting pause on whatever he was talking about in the synagogue to attend to a crippled woman that day, we can be equally confident that when we come before God with our needs and concerns, we are never bugging him. We are doing the very thing that delights him.
When you cannot imagine anything changing
What about you?
Can you relate to the crippled woman’s experience? Is there a “disabling” relationship or circumstance that has gone on for so long that you cannot imagine anything changing? Do you worry that you’ll be “bugging” God if you talk to him about it, especially since he has been silent for what feels like forever?
Instead of holding back, try leaning in. Draw close to God. Ask him to open your ears to his invitation—to let you hear the words he wants you to hear—and respond with whatever praise you can muster. Glorify God, as the crippled woman did, knowing that he has both the power and the desire to set you free. Here’s a short prayer that might help:
Heavenly Father,
When I am afflicted and my soul is downcast, help me find hope in this truth: Because of your great love I am not consumed; your compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:19-23)
Amen
(Note: A version of this post appeared last month on Club31Women.com, a place where you’ll find encouragement for your faith, your family, and your home. Check out this recent post about Mary Magdalene’s Contagious Joy from my friend Nicole Zasowski. And if you’re looking for a good Bible study to do on your own or with a group this summer, click here to learn more about her just-released Daring Joy.
