WHO AM I? WHOSE AM I?
[8-minute read]
Book titles, song titles, movie titles, programme titles and even sermon titles are simply introductions: they don’t tell the entire story. Nobody reads a book title and says they have read the book. Or seen a movie title and say they have seen the whole movie.
Good titles signal what can be expected, set the tone for what is to come, and summarize the core content. They are introduction statements. Anyone who has had a destiny-changing, life-transforming encounter with Jesus will also have an original and unique introduction statement for their experience. From the Bible, we are well-acquainted with the story of ‘the Samaritan woman at the well’ (John 4:4-30), ‘the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet’ (Luke 7:36-50), ‘Zacchaeus the Tax Collector’ (Luke 19:1–10), ‘Blind Bartimaeus who received his sight’ (Mark 10:46-52), or (for this article) ‘the woman with the issue of blood’ (Mark 5:30-34).
For context, the woman with a bleeding disorder had touched Jesus’ outer garment ‘because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” (Mark 5:28). Jesus introduced an unexpected twist when He refused to let her slip back into anonymity by openly acknowledging her presence in the crowd, saying, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.’ The woman set out to approach the Lord as a silent victim and left the encounter, restored as a child of God whom Jesus called daughter.
Imagine the media headline and cover illustration that would follow today. It would be sensational - to say the least - but it would certainly not say anything about the woman’s life post-encounter with Jesus. Similarly, among us is a faithful follower of Jesus Christ born out of wedlock who survived multiple abortion attempts. While she did not choose the circumstances under which she came into the world, she chose to do life with Christ as her Lord and Saviour. Another escaped a poverty-stricken home with an alcoholic and abusive father and found herself trapped in two abusive marriages until she found freedom in Christ. Make no mistake: these, too, are only opening statements for the new life they have found in Christ.
So, what is one headline that best describes God’s transformative work in your life – your opening title? How does it influence your perspective of who you are to God?
The woman’s encounter with Jesus in Mark 5 gives us 7 reminders how God sees us:
1 - A CHILD OF GOD
Scripture: John 1:12-13
Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Meeting Jesus didn’t just solve the woman’s physical problem - it redefined who she became. When her quality of life was taken away by an incurable disorder, she was the patient who never got well. For twelve long years, she was alienated not only from friends and family, but also from her old life and from who she was before she fell ill. But to the Lord, she wasn’t just an invalid - indistinguishable in a sea of people - she was a child of God.
There is a reason why we have outlived our personal traumas and loss: God sees us and He isn’t going to let us slip away without knowing that we are His children.
2 - RESTORED AND SET FREE!
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:30 [NLT]
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin.
Imagine you are a patient and you have fully recovered from an illness or an injury, but the doctor never discharged you so that you could leave the hospital and return to your normal life. How would that influence your ability to do what you could not previously do while in recovery?
In the same way, Jesus not only saves us, He also sets us free from brokenness! “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” (John 8:36). Why is this so important for us to know? This freedom allows us to walk out of brokenness, and all inhibitions associated with it. We will dare to take risks. We will love better, relate better and trust more easily. We may fail again, be hurt again but we are safer even without excessive rules that restrict our ability to grow and mature in Christ.
3/7 A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here!
Being a new creation is not about being upholstered, repackaged or renovated. We are not talking about inventing a different version of the past. Neither is it about a new marriage, reinventing ourselves professionally, or even moving to another church, but about our willingness to change the way we perceive and respond to realities.
Our environments, too, can either restrict our growth or help it to flourish. We all know that trees struggle to thrive on malnourished and over used land because of the soil's depleted capacity to support healthy growth. This leads to low-quality crops no matter how much we intensify the planting. Examine your environment – what quality of faith grows out of that place.
Whether we are ministers or lay persons, we must all grow and evolve post-salvation. What does your life look like after the riveting headline of your beginning with Christ? What quality of decisions follows that headline? The woman with the issue of blood became the woman without the issue of blood: but who is the person without the illness? Would she keep going back to healers and priests for some other ‘disease’ or would she live out what Jesus meant when He told her, ‘Be freed from your suffering’?
Life in Christ is life with Christ. He is our Rock and our Refuge, being safe in Christ even when we feel threatened.
4 - LOVED AND CHOSEN BY GOD
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:4 [NLT]
We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.
Although the Bible never recorded her name, Jesus chose to call the woman with the issue of blood ‘Daughter’. Her life was not meant to be a single headliner – ‘Woman with the issue of blood healed and set free by Jesus’. She would begin to learn to live out her new identity not as a patient, but as a person loved and chosen by God.
We don’t choose to be ill. We don’t choose our parents, the family or the realities we are born into. Whether we are healthy or sickly, athletic or differently abled, raised in affluent or poor homes, God has intentionally chosen to love us first. He selected us not for membership, but for an enduring relationship with each one of us.
5 - HOLY & BLAMELESS
Scripture: Ephesians 1:4 NLT
Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.
The Bible did not record anything beyond the woman’s mysterious blood disorder. But could it be possible that in the 12 years of social isolation she may have been resentful towards those around her? Yet, when Jesus saw the woman who tugged at His cloak, He saw a human who was loved by His Father. The Lord continued with what He saw His Father do, for He had said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19).
Each time God sees us, He sees His Son Jesus – holy and blameless.
6 - GOD’S MASTERPIECE
Scripture: Ephesians 2:10 NLT
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
We must believe that God has already given us all the right pieces in our lives to fit His grand design. To us, they may look like disjointed pieces of a huge and complex puzzle. We may even want to replace the uninteresting pieces, and exchange them for something that stands out and make more sense to us. But they would not fit God’s unique plans and purpose for us.
Obedience is about what we do with each piece of the puzzle. 1 Samuel 15:2 [paraphrased] tells us that to obey is better than (performative) sacrifice. We are to move each piece to fit God’s plans for us individually. Struggling to put the pieces together could reveal that we are competing with God for control of the narrative. If we insist on replacing the pieces, we face the risk of sabotaging our growth and increasingly feeling like misfits.
In what ways have you seen God’s masterpiece unfold in your life recently?
7 - MADE WHOLE & COMPLETE
Scripture: Colossians 2:8-10
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So, you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Christian salvation is a lifelong commitment to allow God’s active power to work in our lives. So it's important to ask ourselves what it means to be whole and complete.
While we do not know what trauma the woman suffered before she approached Jesus that day, would she not anchor future decisions and actions in what Jesus told her, “Your faith has healed you… be freed from your suffering”.
What about you?
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 7 February 2026.
