Be Free

By Emma Morris 

Have you ever noticed that Fairy Tale stories go a bit like this...
 

A princess lives a normal life.
Something bad happens.
She needs rescuing - usually by a Prince.
They lived happily ever after.

My story went a little bit like this;
I grew up fairly normal, a loving home with a mum, dad, brother and sister. Life was good, school was good, but then one day, when I was 7, my dad left our family home. He didn't leave very nicely and our family was left broken.

We carried on living our lives without a father and my mum did a great job raising us. When I was 13 she became really ill - she had to go to hospital for a month, and after the month she died.

Life was a little crazy to say the least. Our family turned upside down, but we had a great Aunty and Uncle who looked after us and gave us a great life.

In that time, I found my rescuer - not a Prince Charming, but a Saviour of the world. His name was Jesus. I began a journey of healing from my mother passing away, and my father abandoning us.

This journey is still ongoing, 10 years later.

There's a story in the Bible of a woman who had an issue. Her story can be found in Mark 5. Her issue was an issue of blood and she had been bleeding for 12 years.

12 Years is 114 months, 624 weeks, 4383 days, and 105,192 hours. Having an issue of bleeding for that long is a seriously long time.

Now back in those days if you were bleeding you were classed as unclean.

She would have had a very lonely life. She probably couldn't prepare food for others, couldn't do housework, couldn't be a wife, or a mum.
She probably didn't have friends, and might not have any family, she probably lives away from everyone else, and possibly has sat starting at the walls for 12 years.

But this is how her story goes:

"She has suffered a great deal from many doctors."
I don't know about you, but when I go to the doctors I expect to have great care from them - not to suffer a great deal.

"Over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them."
There was no NHS to access free health care.
She must have spent her entire life savings, every penny she had, over the 12 years, hoping to stop her issue.

"She hadn't got any better, in fact she got worse.”
Again, if I went to the doctors I wouldn't expect to get worse.

"She had heard about Jesus."
This woman, alone, isolated, hears about Jesus, and noticed something different in him. She knew he was the only one to help her.

"So she came up behind him through the crowds and touched his robe."
She set off on a mission to touch Jesus, probably wearing an outfit that covered her and had a hood so she could hide.
She probably walked with her head down and pushed through the crowd to get to Jesus.

"For she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed."
When she touched Jesus' robe, she was instantly healed.

"Jesus realised that healing power had gone out from him so he turned around and asked who touched my robe?"
Have any of you ever done something, and never wanted to own up to it?
Can you imagine what this woman must have thought?

I bet everything in her wanted to say nothing and run away.
But she didn't, "The frightened woman, trembling at the realisation of what happened to her, came and fell to her knees in from of him and told him what she had done."

She's probably expected to be told off, to be told you're unclean, or told how dare you touch our Jesus!

But what Jesus does is this.

He says to her "Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace, your suffering is over."

I love this story! I love this woman, who we don’t know by name, came to Jesus. She had an issue and she needed to be free from it.
 

In the same way I had an issue that I needed to be free from, and the only person who could free me was Jesus.

I explained earlier that my dad left when I was 7 and he didn't leave very nicely. He had hurt my mum really badly. Whenever I saw my dad in the street or in a shop, I had a crazy, intense fear rise inside me.

I didn't want to live in fear from him anymore. I knew that living in fear wasn't what Jesus wanted for my life so I had to give my issue to Jesus.
When I gave them to him, I felt him tell me I needed to meet with my dad.

So I arranged to meet up with him for the first time since I was 7, and I asked him so many questions about why he left and about our childhood.

Since meeting with him, we have begun a journey of reconnect our relationship, and this year was the first year that Father's Day wasn't such a horrific day for me, I even sent him a Father's Day card.

It says in the Bible that we were called to be free, and that it's through Jesus that we have been set free.

Maybe you have an issue that you want to be free from. Maybe you have an issue with a family member, maybe you're self-harming, or maybe you're struggling with an illness.

Jesus is our ultimate healer and the ultimate freedom giver.

He doesn't want you to suffer with an issue - he wants to bring healing, freedom and fullness of life within you.

Maybe start a journey of freedom with Jesus today. Maybe just chat to him about what's going on. Maybe meet with a parent, youth leader or someone you trust to invite Jesus to bring freedom.

With Jesus you are safe, you are loved, and you can be healed.

Emma Morris

Emma is currently working as a youth worker in Liverpool. She loves watching the X Factor, shopping in bargain stores and has been known to listen to Christmas music from October onwards! Her heart is that every girl would fully grasp, and walk, in the amazing truths that God says about them, rather than listening to what others say. 

BE YOU!

Each month a newly formed team of brilliant bloggers will be blogging on the themes we cover in the Be Loved course, and this month is all about being YOU.*

By Gemma Tuson

You may have started a new school, college, university or work place in the last couple of weeks, which for the majority of us can always be a nerve-wracking experience.... I have massive respect for those of you who happily embrace change!

Sometimes it is tempting in new situations to be less 'us' and become more like other people to try and fit in. But why is it we don't like being true to ourselves?

In a lot of cases we listen to those negative words that we speak over ourselves, or that someone else has spoken over us, and we believe that those words are true.

We start to focus more on those words over any positive words, completely ignoring the truth.

Did you know that it takes 5 positive words to counteract one negative one? So if we're constantly listening to the negatives, no wonder we don't believe, or receive, a positive one.

How many times has someone complimented you on something and instead of accepting it, and replying 'thank you', you've responded with a criticism about yourself? Let's be honest here, I often find myself doing it too.

Positive self talk takes time and a lot of practise, but it's so important that we are kind to ourselves.

Check this out;

“Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

Psalm 139:13-16 MSG

Wow, now that's positive self talk for you! And how true too. We are created by God, every last little intricate detail, so when we speak negatively about ourselves, we're speaking negatively about our creator too.

God does not say anything negative about us, only wonderfully positive things. So we really should listen to Him, above anyone else.

He says we are accepted...

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”

Romans 5:1-2 NIV

“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.”

Ephesians 1:3-10 MSG

He says that we are secure....

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

Romans 8:1-2 NIV

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:7 NIV

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 1:6 NIV

And He says that we are significant...

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

1 Corinthians 3:16 NIV

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 NIV

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

John 15:16 NIV

When we focus more on what God says about us than what we, or other people, say about us then it should help us to remember who we are, and why we were created. God calls us his beloved, which simply means 'greatly loved'. Once we grasp how much we are adored by the creator of the world we should hopefully not be afraid to be true to ourselves and be the amazing person we were created to be.

Beloved, you are unique and that's something to be celebrated!

*The 'Be You' session of the Be Loved course came out as the no. 1 session for the young women taking part, time and time again. This session really helps them hear what God has to say about them, whilst also hearing positive words from their fellow group members, which ultimately helps them accept themselves and boosts their self-esteem.

Gemma Tuson

Gemma is the creator of the Be Loved resource. She has worked with young people for over 10 years doing various creative workshops all over the UK. For the past 2 years she has also been working in schools as a mentor, allowing young people the space to chat through issues one on one. She loves drinking tea, cooking and all things craft related. Her heart is to see young people reach their full potential and be set free from any issues, or circumstances, that can hold them back. 

Gemma has been married to Mark for 13 years and they have two gorgeous children.