I am privileged to work with precious women. It was nice to be reminded about how much Jesus loves/loved women. May the following be an encouragement to you as a woman and/or to the women in your life.
At a time when men and especially Rabbis didn’t talk to women (even women of good repute) in public, Jesus cared for women despite the cultural bounds of His time. Here are some examples that came to mind (you can spend time reading and thinking through the precious details):
1) He publicly commended a woman with a bleeding issue for her faith (she was probably shunned by others for years) and called her “daughter” (huge!). (Luke 8:43-48).
2) He raised a 12 year old girl back to life. (Luke 8:40-42;49-56)
3) When brought before Him a woman caught in adultery to test Jesus (by law they were supposed to have brought the man too!), Jesus does not condemn her, but clears the crowd by writing in the sand, and forgives her. (John 8:1-11)
4) Jesus stops a funeral procession and raises a widow’s son back to life (he was her only means of support left). (Luke 7:11-17)
5) He purposely went to Samaria (at a time Jews went out of their way to avoid the area) and spoke to a woman of ill repute and not only engaged her into conversation publicly, but revealed Himself as the Christ (something He rarely did outright). (John 4:7-45)
6) Jesus publicly commended and forgave a woman who came to Simon’s house and wept at His feet and poured perfume on Him. (Luke 7:36-50)
7) He was in fellowship with Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) and He was moved emotionally after their brother died and raised him to life. (John 11:1-46)
8) One of my favorite stories is when Mary M. goes to the tomb to see Jesus’ body (for anointing purposes) and ends up talking to Jesus. He chose Mary as the first person He showed Himself to post resurrection. (John 20:11-18)
Jesus told the Samaritan woman “if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water (John 4:10). Matthew 7:11 says “if you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” I don’t know what His good gifts are planned for you, but our gentle and humble hearted Savior still wants us to come to Him (Matthew 11:28-30) and ask approaching His throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (James 4:16)
Thanks Jesus!
Gina Linden
Birthmother Counselor
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So glad to see those words of encouragement, to us birthmoms.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting link I saw on YouTube recently. Ravi Z. (pastor/teacher) was talking about an atheist's rejection of Christianity, because of God's curse of Eve in the Garden. He pointed to the fact that you cannot take the decision out of context. But also to the fact, that when you study Jesus in the New Testament (as you listed out above), that time and time again He ministered directly TOO women, at a time when society had little view of them as important. And Ravi challenged the listeners, to find ANY other "religion", where women are revered the way Christian teachings show that women are to be viewed/treated/respected... or as I would say, "Cherished".
The need we have as females to be "cherished", comes from God Himself placing that desire within us. And we sell ourselves for pennies emotionally... afraid to trust in His plan for our lives.
What an awesome God. And how He loves us, is something that I still can't wrap my mind around.