Skip to main content

Have you ever felt so fearful that you could not help yourself?

Today, we’ll meet two women who understood that kind of fear. And hear how God helped them overcome. The first is speaker and leader Vera Velk and the second is a suffering woman who sought Jesus.

Let’s start with our friend Vera. Her story began with a fear of being seen or noticed. Watch the video to see what happened next!

Now let’s head to

 Luke 8:42b-48

“Jesus…was surrounded by the crowds. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

If ever there was someone who wanted to remain invisible, it was this bleeding woman. According to Jewish law, she should have been nowhere near a crowd. For 12 years, she had lived her life in the shadows.

Honestly, was that really living?

Then Jesus comes to town, and she knows this is her moment to find brave. All she needs is one touch of Him. One touch and she can really start living.

He could have left it at that. He could have let her be healed and never publicly praised her. Instead, He wanted to heal all of her. Her daily invisibility needed to be healed, too.

Fear makes us want to turn away and hide.

Jesus calls us out of the crowd and looks us in the eye. “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

Jesus’s solution to our fear is His attention. “Come,” He is almost always saying to us, as he did with her.

What comes next is a life lived in peace. Not inaction, not immobility. No, this woman probably told anyone who would listen about this amazing Jesus.

“And just like that, I stopped bleeding!”

Just like that, as we take one action—even one we think is unseen—we are seen. The God of the Universe gives us His attention and removes our fear. Like this woman, and my friend Vera, we go forward healed and able to demonstrate and tell how good God is.

Discussion Questions


What situations make you fearful?

How can Jesus’s attention to you as an individual help with this fear?

What makes you feel unsure about sharing your faith? What one way will you reach out to another this week to help them experience Jesus’ healing attention and words?