How many memories do we have of feeling ignored, inferior, and just plain worthless as women? No doubt, these stories could fill volumes of books. Even though we’ve tried to brush them off or forget them, they can eventually take their toll. And we consciously or unconsciously alter our behavior because of them. We try to speak more softly. We hesitate to voice our opinion, even when asked. We suffer in silence.
But this is not God’s intent for us. In his eyes, we are precious women of worth who are loved beyond measure. He wants to heal our wounds and restore us. This week, we will unpack a few stories in the Bible that illustrate how God values the healing of women. We’ll discuss some of Jesus’s encounters with women and see how his healing power changed their lives.
Our stories come from the book of Luke, which has long been called the woman’s best New Testament friend because in it, Jesus elevated the women of the first century from their low, secondary positions to valuable members of God’s kingdom. Let’s see how he does that.
Today, let’s look at Luke 8, where Jesus heals a young girl. In the latter verses, we find Jesus among a crowd who desperately wanted something from him: healing. From the crowd emerged Jairus, a leader of the synagogue. His little girl was gravely ill, and he desperately asked, even begged, Jesus to come see about the young twelve-year-old girl.
With a crowd in desperate need of his help, Jesus could have refused. Instead, he valued the healing of a girl so much that he immediately went with Jairus. Unfortunately, the young girl had died by the time they arrived at the house and all who were present were grieving. Instead of offering condolences, Jesus had other plans.
In the room with the seemingly dead girl, three disciples, and two parents, Jesus lovingly said, “Child, arise.” And she immediately got up.
This passage shows the spectrum of who God cares about—he cares about everyone across the board. In the preceding passage, Luke recounts the healing of a man controlled by demons. It’s no coincidence that we see the healing of both genders. In fact, this is Luke’s pattern in many of his passages that recount Jesus’s miracles. The healing of a woman follows the healing of a man. Why would Luke do that? He wants to show that women are just as valuable as men in God’s eyes. This healing of Jairus’s daughter shows the value of human life to Jesus. He cares about our healing, no matter how old we are. This isn’t to pit men against women or vice versa. We all need the healing and restoration of Jesus, and he wants to restore all who come to him. In Christ, we all have equal standing, no matter our ethnicity, our gender, or even our socioeconomic status (Galatians 3:28–29).
My past scars have come from betrayal of trust. When this happens I build walls to protect myself and prevent it from happening again. I don’t stay here for long because the truth is that not everyone is careless with the gift of trust, so even though I’ve been hurt I try again. Christ continues to be my healer ad guide in this process. The more that I lean into Him and trust in His faithfulness, the more I see the goodness in others. No, I cannot trust and be vulnerable to all at the same level but I don’t have to build a fortress and barricade everyone out either. I have come to understand that we learn and see Christ so much through His creation and that includes one another as His image bearers. As I come to Him humbly with my scars in prayer, He has been faithful to provide the healing and restoration I have needed along the way.
Love how you say,”I try again” and “Christ continues to be your healer”. Your faithful confidence in His redeeming grace and love is beautifully spoken.
Going into high school as a freshman I had a math teacher who thought woman were not as good at math as men. I remember asking him for help on a math problem and he looked at me and “you’ll never get this. Women just aren’t as good at math as men.” This enforced a negative mindset around math for me and to this day I am not confident when it comes to numbers. His words may have left a scar, but I know deep down that God created me in his image and I’m not stupid. Some people may be more gifted at certain things than others, but that’s all part of Gods plan. We need one another to make up the body of Christ. We all have unique talents and gifts that are important. I trust God uses my gifts daily to disciple to others.
Loss of friendship has been a scar that I don’t realize I carried with me so deeply until recently. I would pour my heart into friendships only to be left for – what felt to me – no reason. It affected my self-esteem, as well as how I trusted others. Even after losing friendships, I remained happy; each best friend I lost slowly chipped away at me a little more than the last. I didn’t realize how deep the pain was until I noticed my insecurity I’m marriage. But marriage is the exact thing God uses to restore my trust. My husband understands and empathizes with my pain, and I now have deeper relationships than I have maybe ever had. What a blessing!
Scars from the past are so painful they are vague in my memory, unnamed, but deeply rooted….I think the Lord has helped me, by washing me with his love and forgiveness, and helped me to grow in his love, feel that I am valued, and that I’m forgiven my mistakes of young womanhood. The situation did seem hopeless for so long…..I had hurt those I loved, I made poor choices, was trapped in a loveless marriage, and yet God took my hand, and that situation and subsequently turned my life around to make it something beautiful, with a long happy marriage to my wonderful husband, with whom we are blessed with a loving family, including two granddaughters who I adore. I have experienced God’s healing, emotionally, and spiritually. I KNOW that He is faithful to complete His good work in me (Phil 1: 6) ….. and my job is to continue to run His race, and stay on His track.
My scars come from my husband cheating on me and having a baby with another women. Yes I forgave him and he has turned himself over to the lord but I have the hardest time trusting because I have been hurt so bad and deceived so so bad not mention it’s hard to communicate with him. God has showed up every time and has never left my side. He has given me grace to give back and he has given me peace through the storm this has been about two years now and I’m gett g better but the occasional stink g thinking hits and that’s the battle I find myself in at times. God has healed and restored our marriage amen Jesus but I get setbacks n my head that I hav to encourage myself through…. I pray a lot and I always feel his presence;)
Praying the Lord comforts and heals your heart, Elva. There is a website called affairrecovery.com that has a lot of free articles that are really, really helpful. The founder of the organization is a believer.
My scars come from a long ago affair. Though God has restored our marriage, I still have self esteem and trust issues. God brought about reconciliation. About 10 years ago, God called my husband into the ministry. He completed his training and is now a pastor in a church which we have come to love the people God has us shepherding. Issues are starting to arise because of "abuse" to me from his secretary. I continue to be hurt by things she has said or does to me. When I mention it to him, he just tells me to work it out with her. I’d like for him to stand up for me. This has been a matter of prayer for the last year. I know God can turn this situation around and I trust that, in His time, all things will once again be made beautiful!!!!
As a previous pastor’s wife (he was hurt in a collision and could no longer pastor) I know what you mean. Unfortunately there is almost always that one church member who is catty toward the pastor’s wife. I belonged to a group on-line and we all shared our war stories. Not sure what he means by "work it out" I say try to kill her with kindness. Don’t let her see she is ruffling your feathers. Sadly, a pastor is in a very difficult position when it comes to dealing with problems between a church member/employee and his wife. I honestly think your husband is right to tell you to work it out, before he intervenes.
Sister, as a person who works for a church, this looks like a red flag to me. Praying right now for the Lord to bring health to this dynamic, and for your husband, who is "one flesh" with you, and called by God to love you and protect you, to indeed stand up for you and straighten things out with his colleague’s bad attitude. Praying God’s blessing and favour over you.
Yes, my scars have taught me that people cannot be trusted. I am working very hard to fight those feelings in order to feel safe with those who have proven their trustworthiness, including Jesus.
I have been struggling with hope for my son-in-law’s salvation and to be a follower of Christ. I’ve been praying for the past 14 months in this regard and for their marriage. Wounds of words and actions. I’ve not "seen" anything yet. Lately, my hope is becoming fainter. I’ve seen what God has done in other men and their marriages, so I know God can heal this one and bring salvation life to my SIL. I am continuing to pray even when I don’t see God moving. Some days are better than others. Lately, I’ve had to be very intentional in continuing to pray and believe. I sing the song Waymaker a lot!
Love that song too! I have similar daily prayer for a family member. It’s had knowing they aren’t accepting of the greatest gift in life, Jesus.
My scars from the past are from verbal and mental abuse by family and bullying throughout my life. All of it has made me feel so unworthy and it spilled into my creativity, my work, my relationships. I feel so much self doubt and I second guess myself, overthink everything and isolate myself. Now I need to use my creativity and connect more than ever as I am working on my business and my writing. Yes, I believe that God can heal it all and I pray and trust Him to do so! In Jesus’ Name Amen.
Wow.i feel exactly the same way.Really trying to trust Jesus one day at a time.
My scars from the past are usually surrounding romantic relationships. My parents were young and not married when they had me, and they did not stay together. Almost all the women in my family have had unhealthy relationships and I felt that I didn’t have anyone to look up to when it came to that. I didn’t know what a healthy relationship was supposed to look like…until I was in a 2.5 year relationship with a man I really loved. I thought he was the one until I found out he slept with someone else while we were dating. That made me turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms that involved relationships with other guys that I knew wouldn’t surmount to anything as well as many other ways I tried to "cope" with the heartbreak. I am now in the beginning stages of a potential relationship with someone else and I always have this anxiety that he is going to leave or think I’m not good enough for him. I know this stems from my own insecurities, but sometimes I feel hopeless when it comes to trust. I am constantly talking to God about these internal battles I have with myself and asking him for strength and comfort and just trusting in Him and knowing that that’s good enough.
Keep praying. See my post. I understand. Know YOU are a Child of God. We are both good enough! Perfectly and wonderfully made.