Just Believe - The One Year At His Feet Devotional
Just Believe
Read: Mark 5:21-43
“Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
Mark 5:36
“Faith tells us of things we have never seen, and cannot come to know by our natural senses.”
—St. John of the Cross
IN WORD Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, likely had a range of negative feelings toward Jesus when men from his house came and told him his daughter was dead. Jairus had risked a lot to plead with Jesus for his daughter’s life. In a moment of desperation, he threw theology out the window in exchange for a miracle. He probably didn’t care where the miracle came from, even if it was from Jesus; his daughter’s life was at stake. Now, after Jesus had “wasted” precious minutes healing a bleeding woman in the crowd, the report meets them on the road. The girl is dead.
Jesus’ response is strange to our ears. Throughout the episode, He completely ignores the circumstances. There is no acknowledgment here of the obstacles to His power. She’s dead? No matter. Commotion and wailing? Not important. None of the hubbub is the truth of the situation. He is.
There are at least two things Jesus would have us learn from this verse: (1) Negative reports are not the final analysis of a horrible situation; and (2) fear is at war against our faith. When all hell breaks loose against us—and it quite literally does, sometimes—Jesus would have us ignore its ultimate weapon. Do not believe its reports. The enemy—and the death he wields against us—will devastate us if we let them. But we have a choice. We can fear, or we can believe. We can’t do both. We have to pick one.
IN DEED Does this mean that faith always brings about our desired outcome? Of course not; our desires are not the product of omniscience and are skewed sometimes. We don’t always know God’s will in a situation. But it does mean that faith always brings about God’s desired outcome. If it’s real trust, based on the real character of God, it prompts His perfect response in His perfect timing. But fear wars against our trust; it questions God’s goodness and His power. Don’t let it. Jesus’ solution is simple—make a choice. “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
