Fear Flees in the Face of Belief

Here is what I want to talk about- you don't have to read it all of course, but if you do, here it is: (Mark 5)

My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

35While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"


These are what I like to call "sandwich stories" - one thing is happening, another event takes place in the middle, and then the first thing is finished. First thing here is Jairus pleading with Jesus to come put his hands on his daughter so she will be healed and live. So Jesus is going there, as he's going the woman comes up and touches him... after this ordeal some men from Jairus' house come up and are like "Dude, your daughter's dead - no point in bothering the teacher anymore, might as well come home and bury her". Can you imagine what you would have felt like - the what-ifs that would have gone through your head- "What if I could just have got Jesus there faster?" "What if that woman would have just waited to get healed?" "Will my wife hate me when she finds out what I've done?" "How will I ever be able to forgive myself?"... But Jesus intervenes, ignoring those men, and says "Don't be afraid; just believe". And Jesus doesn't let people follow them - Jairus cannot clear himself with witnesses, he just has to trust Jesus, even if everyone else has every reason to believe that would be foolish. Jesus raises his daughter from the dead. Sometimes I get caught up in things - rushing to Jesus to get him to just do this, really quickly, but then sometimes he doesn't go "Poof" and make all problems disappear - sometimes He gives me the strength to endure, to believe in Him even when others can't see what He's doing. I'm learning to trust God with everything, even when it seems foolish, even when I would rather have things my way, He is teaching me that His way is the best way, and I'm starting to agree. So I will continue to pursue Him above every dream and hope of my own, for God rewards those who seek Him. I will learn to not be afraid, as He teaches me to just believe.