HOPE – IT KEEPS US MOVING
Commended – Finding Your Joy in god’s approval, affirmation, and Pleasure(even on your worst Days)
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors. —Matthew 6:12
I bless you, beloved child of God,
To take your brokenness to Jesus,
To push through,
To not give up,
I bless you to receive more than you ask,
As you persevere,
I bless you with the joy,
Of Jesus’s commendation and healing,
As you give and receive forgiveness,
And I bless you with the joy,
Of reconciliation to God and others.
CHAPTER 10
HER LAST RESORT
Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and
be healed of your disease. —Jesus—Mark 5:34
Eliana’s world seemed an atrocious absurdity. What had once
been a promising life lay in ruins. Her beauty, health, friends,
and money were gone. All stolen by a relentless physical bleeding
that had systematically taken everything away from her like
a thief in the night who returns day after day over a twelve-year
period, until there is nothing left to take.
The rabbis had not helped. With hope and expectancy, she
had performed the dictated washing rituals. When she returned
to them after the prescribed eighty days, still bleeding, they
declared her officially and permanently unclean. Now ostracized,
she could never again join worshippers in the synagogue on
Sabbath days. The rabbis even required her to celebrate the Passover
privately, a month after everyone else…alone!
The only people who would associate with her were the
physicians whom she had sought in desperation. The physicians.
Eliana’s face pinched. Little help they were. And now that all her
money was gone, they would no longer treat her. Eliana had given
up seeking the unanswered why. It no longer mattered. And now,
like a beaten puppy cowers and hides before its abuser, Eliana
shrunk back, hiding from life, believing this was all she deserved,
all she would ever receive. So, she isolated to avoid further blows.
Yet, one day something invaded her darkness. Like the first
cry of a rooster penetrating the dark veil of sleep, the clamoring
of the crowd outside her house roused Eliana from her ruminations
and sparked a curiosity which drew her into the street. It was there
she saw Him…
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