by Amanda Baker
Mark 5:36 “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.”
Recently in reading a series of passages in Scripture that deal with faith, I came across Mark 5. There are several situations that Christ encounters here that illustrate faith. The one the caught my attention is found in Mark 5:21-43. A ruler of the synagogue named Jairus comes to Christ asking for His healing for his daughter. Christ makes His way to heal her fever when He is detained by the crowd of people and encounters the woman with the issue of blood. Her faith heals her, but in the delay, Jairus’s daughter dies. When her death is reported to the Lord, He responds to Jairus with a powerful statement – “Be not afraid, only believe.” Many times in our lives we face circumstances that naturally elicit fear – a serious illness, loss of a job, financial difficulties, death of a loved one. Obviously, the Lord knew that He would raise this little girl up, but her father did not know that. Christ ministered to Jairus’s natural response of fear with an admonishment to believe. It seems as if the Lord knew in our human nature that we would need to be reminded to have faith in the midst of difficulty because most often our fear clouds the eye of faith. What is it that is obstructing your vision of faith in this new year? Take the Lord’s admonition to a father who had just lost his daughter to encourage your heart when facing difficulty – “Be not afraid, only believe!”