Simple Faith: The One Thing God Requires

“She had heard the reports about Jesus and 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 5:27-28)

When men are faced with great challenges, hard situations, or incredible adversity, the command of the Savior is calming in its simplicity: “Do not fear, only believe.” The Lord has determined to bless those with a simple faith. We live in a complicated world, filled with layered problems, but faith is a simple thing.

We are meant to trust the Word implicitly—to believe its promises, accept its teaching, and follow its instruction. If God has spoken, there is no room for doubt or uncertainty.

This is admirably demonstrated by the woman in Mark 5. Scripture tells us she suffered with a hemorrhagic condition for twelve years. Of all people, she had reason to be skeptical. Her condition baffled the entire medical community. Repeated attempts for healing only worsened her disease. The word of a miracle-performing ‘faith healer’ in her community likely raised eyebrows. (Indeed, Jesus’ own community of Nazareth was skeptical of his abilities!)

She could have leveled any number of excuses. Spiritual quacks are a dime a dozen. If the inhabitants of his own community didn’t believe him, why should she? Her disease was unique, and it demanded a special level of expertise to heal. For twelve years she had sought relief and found none. Wasn’t this evidence that God didn’t want her to be healed? Besides, Jesus was surrounded by crowds. How could she, a woman weakened by disease, push through the multitude to get near the healer?

Whatever thoughts may have gone through her mind, her faith was simple. “For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.’” There was no doubting, no uncertainty, no attempt to reason it out, only a simple faith in Jesus. Her case may have been complex, but faith is not complex. It is a simple acceptance of revealed truth.

Albert Barnes said it well when he wrote, “Many of the most useful people in the church are distinguished mainly for their simple confidence in the promises of God; and often accomplish more by prayer and by their faith in God than others do who are distinguished for their wisdom and learning.”

What does God’s Word say to you? Do you accept it implicitly, or are you still trying to understand it, to make sense of things on your own, to reason it out? As Martin Burnham, the missionary martyr, said to his wife Gracia during their captivity, “Either you believe it all, or you don’t believe it at all.”

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