The Bleeding Woman - The God Who Restores What Shame Steals
The Bleeding Woman - The God Who Restores What Shame Steals
The Bleeding Woman
The God Who Restores What Shame Steals
This woman appears in Mark 5. She lived with a medical condition that caused continual bleeding for twelve long years. According to her culture’s purity laws, this condition rendered her “unclean,” which meant she was excluded from religious spaces, community gatherings, and even physical touch. Anyone she touched became unclean as well. Her illness was not just physical. It was emotional, social, relational, and spiritual. She spent everything she had trying to get better, but nothing improved. Instead, she only grew worse.
She is a woman who suffered in silence, carrying a private battle that shaped every part of her life.
Primary Scripture: Mark 5:34, NIV
“Daughter, your faith has healed you.”
Expanded Reflection:
For twelve years she lived on the outside looking in. For twelve years she carried shame she did not cause and isolation she did not choose. For twelve years she was defined by a condition that robbed her of touch, belonging, safety, and hope. People avoided her not because of who she was, but because of what she carried. Illness stole more than her strength. It stole her identity.
Maybe you know what it feels like to live with something that has lasted longer than anyone expected. Maybe your battle is not physical. Maybe it is emotional pain that lingers. Maybe it is trauma that resurfaces. Maybe it is rejection, depression, betrayal, addiction, or a wound that seems to follow you through every season. Maybe you have prayed for release but still wake up each day feeling the weight of it.
This woman understood that feeling deeply. She had nothing left. No money. No support. No place to belong. But she still had hope. When she heard Jesus was near, something inside her rose up. She did not wait for Him to notice her. She reached for Him.
She pressed through the crowd even though the laws said she was not supposed to. She touched the hem of His garment believing that even the smallest contact with Him carried enough power to rebuild a life that had been emptied out.
And she was right.
The moment she touched Him, her bleeding stopped. Jesus felt power leave Him and turned around in a crowd of people to find the woman who touched Him. Not to rebuke her. Not to call out her condition. But to publicly restore what shame had taken privately.
He called her Daughter.
This is the only recorded moment in Scripture where Jesus uses that word for a woman. He speaks healing to her body and dignity to her identity. He tells her that her faith has made her whole. Not her worthiness. Not her past. Not her reputation. Her faith.
This woman’s healing teaches us something vital. Sometimes the miracle is not just what God removes from your life. Sometimes the miracle is the courage God gives you to reach for Him after years of disappointment, shame, or silence.
Your reach matters. Your faith matters. Your longing matters.
Jesus does not just heal sickness. He heals shame. He restores identity. He brings daughters back into community and declares over them what the world never said:
You are Mine.
You are whole.
You are worthy.
You are seen.
You are loved.
Supporting Scriptures:
Psalm 103:2-4
Isaiah 53:4-5
Jeremiah 30:17
Malachi 4:2
Reflective Questions:
What long-term struggle has left you feeling isolated or unseen.
Where has shame tried to define your worth or limit your hope.
What is one place in your heart where God is inviting you to reach toward Him again.
Prayer:
Jesus, speak Daughter over me the way You spoke it over her. Restore the parts of my life that have been drained by pain, isolation, or shame. Strengthen my reach when faith feels fragile. Heal what is broken in my body, my identity, or my heart. Bring me back into wholeness and declare truth where lies once lived. Amen.
Outcome:
She is instantly healed, publicly affirmed, and restored to community. Jesus reclaims her identity, calling her Daughter, and returns to her everything shame once stole.
Closing Blessing:
May her courage encourage us to trust God more fully; He who was faithful to her is faithful to us.