From unclean to daughter: Allowing the grace of God to transform our suffering, sharing, seeking and striving.

Grace Definition: The unmerited kindness, blessing and favor of God. It is received not achieved. John 1:17 “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Jesus’ interactions with people was grace outworked.

Grace Grace can transform our: Suffering/doubt Sharing our faith Seeking Him Striving for affirmation

The woman with the issue of bleeding Mark 5: 24 -34 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.

The woman with the issue of bleeding Mark 5: 24 -34 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.”

The woman with the issue of bleeding Leviticus 15:25-27 “When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time ...she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge... Any bed she lies on...will be unclean...anything she sits on will be unclean...Anyone who touches them will be unclean…”

Suffering and doubt Doubt and discouragement do not scare Jesus John 20:27…”Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Suffering heightens our awareness of the need for grace. Families share their victories and struggles. God’s compassion and grace can supernaturally bring healing.

Sharing Rev 12:11 “ They have overcome, by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.” 1 Cor 2:2 “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

The most interesting man in the world.

Seeking Ephesians 2: 8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Striving Jesus looks at her and calls her “daughter” He claims her Grace puts an end to striving by declaring what we already are – sons/daughters

From unclean to daughter Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

From unclean to daughter: Allowing the grace of God to transform our suffering, sharing, seeking and striving.