Read Mark 5:25-43
What Controls Us? Faith or Fear?
Jesus and his disciples went across the sea to a new place. When they got out of their boats, the synagogue leader, Jairus, came to Jesus asking for him to come and heal his dying daughter. As they were walking to the house of Jairus, a crowd of people surrounded Jesus and were pressing in on him. I’m sure Jairus is excited to be walking with Jesus because he believes Jesus can heal his daughter. But probably is also a little annoyed with all the people around because they are slowing down progress. Jairus wants to get to his house quickly and things are moving very slowly. Certainly not as fast as he would hope. To make matters “worse,” there is a lady with a hemorrhage bleeding affliction that she has had for 12 years. For 12 years she has had to endure a lot of doctors and spend a lot of money, only to get worse with her condition. She, like Jairus, sees her hope in Jesus. So the woman worked her way into the crowd and worked her way up behind Jesus. She has it in her mind that if she can just touch his cloak that she would be healed. When she touched Jesus, immediately she is healed of her blood affliction. But immediately Jesus stopped because he felt power come from him and he turned and asked, “Who touched my garments?” The woman confessed and she told her story of her affliction. Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well….”
While Jesus was still speaking to her, people came from the house of Jairus and said, “Your daughter is dead; why trouble the teacher anymore?” Can you imagine how this made Jairus feel. He was already annoyed at the slow progress. Then increasingly annoyed because of the delay the woman brought. Now he’s probably angry and distraught having heard that his daughter had died. The fear and feelings of hopelessness just got intensified: she’s dead, it’s over. But Jesus reassured him, it’s not over. Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, only believe.”
Jesus selected a few of his disciples to go with him, Peter, James, and John. They went to the house of Jairus where people were weeping and wailing over the death of the daughter. As they entered the room of the dead child, Jesus put the people out that were there and then took the child by the hand and said, “Little girl, arise! ” Immediately she arose and immediately they all were astonished.
Aren’t we all like this? We have a need, we give it to Jesus in FAITH, but then things don’t happen the way we think it should. As a result we get ANNOYED with the circumstances. We get UPSET when there’s a DELAY in progress. Eventually FEAR controls us. We start off with FAITH until the results we’re looking for don’t happen, or don’t happen when we think they should. Once FAITH is gone, FEAR takes over. The power of the enemy intensifies with lies and deception. Let us take heed to the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid, only believe!”
BELIEF sees Jesus, while FEAR sees absolutely nothing good.
BELIEF sees HOPE for the future, while FEAR sees only HOPELESSNESS!
BELIEF sees God in control, while FEAR sees life out of control.
BELIEF sees God’s GOODNESS, while FEAR thinks nothing good could ever come from their situation.
I’ve lived in fear and I’ve even wallowed in it. I hate it. Lord, help us in our unbelief so we can live with hope versus hopelessness.
