"In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?” When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.” Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.” When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed. Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!” -Luke 8:43-48
Most of the time this story is preached as a message of faith, and I do believe it is a wonderful story of faith, but taking a different approach to the story, the woman as an outcast, the community had banned her, looked down on her, she was named "unclean" and shunned by everyone due to her bleeding. She was almost in the same category of a leper and was banned from any public or holy place. By her touching the cloth of Jesus, her being named "unclean" would have transferred her uncleaniness to him and in that instance, she would have been killed on the spot. but by Jesus calling her out and her responding, he called her "daughter", he called her family and then that took her label of "unclean"away. So, try to think what words had been spoken to this woman by her town, the words that were planted in her and grew until she herself, stayed hidden. But just as much as those bad seeds had grown, there was still something within her she knew, she knew she could be healed, she knew she could be washed clean. Though she knew she would have been killed for stepping forward and admitting she had touched Jesus, she knew even more and believed even more that he would save her, and he did.
Think about your life, think about the lies and words that others have spoken to you that you have allowed to grow. I know I have my garden of weeds that have been growing for as long as I can remember, but who is watering those seeds? Is Jesus? Is satan? Are you? No matter how many seeds of lies you hold in your heart, you, just like the woman, have an underlying knowledge that they can go away. That those seeds of lies and hurt can be cleansed away by Jesus. God created you sister, He formed you in your mothers womb, He knew you before the world was form and He carefully placed each piece of you together, and He placed it together with perfection and love, and anything that anyone on this world has spoken to you that does not match up to what God thinks of you, guess what? It is a lie, it is a lie straight from the enemy himself. You are beautiful, you are smart, you are kind, you are lovely, you are important, you are needed, you are loved, you are talented, you are being used for wonderful things and are going to continued to used for such bigger things, and you are the daughter of THE RISEN KING! Believe it, sister!
Those years of hurt that has scattered seeds in your heart and has grown into a garden of weeds, that tell you that you are stupid, or ugly, or awful, or not good enough, THOSE ARE ALL LIES! Ask God to cleanse the garden of your heart from any seeds that are not planted by Jesus Christ himself! See yourself as Christ sees you, BEAUTIFUL AND A MASTERPIECE! God created you, He is the one to tell you who you are, not this world, not the people of this world. The world did not create you, the people of this world did not carefully piece you together, GOD DID! Therefore only God's opinion of you matters, and that opinion is that you are beautiful, you have a purpose, and YOU ARE HIS!
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