Fear Not!

I just stepped out on our patio to enjoy the coolness of our breezy North Carolina morning.  Our outdoor thermometer is reading around 70 degrees, the birds are singing their beautiful morning tunes, the wind chimes are tinkling away and the crickets in the nearby bushes and trees are proclaiming their crescendos of melodic clicking in and out of all the other sounds that make up the morning entertainment.

How did your Fourth of July holiday weekend go?  Ours was actually pretty quiet.  I think everything from the last month or so finally caught up with me as I was very tired for most of the last couple of days.  In fact we started out on our late afternoon walk yesterday and only got partially down the block before I decided that I probably wasn’t going to make it much further and that it would most likely behoove us to return to the comfort of the couch for an early movie!

Earlier in the morning I was rummaging through some boxes looking for the charger for my beard trimmer when I came across a file folder filled with a variety of old photos ranging from some early artistic shots I had taken of my young girlfriend (ie; my wife!) for a project for my high school photo class, to family portraits taken in 1990.  I was still going through this box when our daughter came by bringing with her a container filled with her personal recipe for southern pulled pork sandwiches!

Before we dug into the delicious sandwiches we reminisced over the photos, the different events that they recorded, the “big hair” on the ladies in the shots from the late eighties and early nineties, and about some of the good times we had on the vacations on the coast at Sea Ranch and in the Redwood’s both in northern California.  Later in the evening I drug out the box again and looked at the memories once more.  That was probably a mistake as by then I was really tired and the glimpse of the pics just made me feel incredibly lonely and very desirous for all the good times my wife and I have had over the years!

But after we watched a half hour or so of the Fort Worth Believers Convention on the GEB America satellite channel and fortifying us in the Word, I felt much better and actually had a pretty good night’s rest.  This morning as I perused through a couple of chapters in the book of John, I somehow ended up looking at Mark 5:36 and was arrested by what Jesus told the leader of the Synagogue who had gone to Him requesting help for his gravely ill son.

In the course of the dialogue it seemed like Jesus got distracted by a women who had come up in the crowd and touched the hem of His garment.  Then to make matters worse, when He was done ministering to the women some friends of the Synagogue leader came up reporting that the man’s son had already died. But you know… Jesus wasn’t distracted and knew exactly what was going on and what needed to be done!  At the negative report Mark recorded that “Instantly Jesus ignored the remark and told the president (the leader of the Synagogue), ‘Have no fear, only believe.’” (Moffatt)  Another translation says that Jesus rather bluntly turned to the heart-broken father and declared, “Don’t listen to them; just trust me.” (The Message)

Then, that little small voice that we are all familiar with inside of us spoke to my heart and said, “The same goes for you!”  Hummm… pretty strait forward wouldn’t you say!  I must confess that I couldn’t argue with that statement as I KNEW it was true!  It really doesn’t matter what I may see (or not see for that matter) happening physically to my wife, what matters is Jesus’ opinion on the subject!  And…. FEAR HAS NO PLACE IN ANY OF IT!

I think that it is interesting that Jesus’ first words to the Synagogue leader were not those of encouragement or even in argument to what was said, but “STOP!  Don’t even consider letting FEAR have any input into your faith walk!”  He KNEW that FEAR would stop the faith process from bringing forth the healing.

When you read the rest of the story you see that it didn’t end there either.  They still had to face the wailing crowds at the leader’s home, the mocking laughter of unbelief at Jesus’ declaration of the truth of the girl’s situation, and then the shadow of death itself alone in the little girl’s room.  But once they got past all of that, the little girl literally jumped up and walked in the presence of the healing power of God!  It would seem that death has no strength when faced with faith in the powerful truth of God and His Word!

So what will it be for you and me today?  Fear in what may or may not be happening that is contrary to what we are believing for?  Or the stamina and steadfastness that comes from the personal experience of “Fear not; only believe!” (Murdock)  Well, I know what I’m gonna do.  I had a vivid dream over the weekend of my wife calling one of our daughters and then her folks and telling them of her healing… That’s what I am hanging onto… How about you in your situation?

Have a great week!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… What or Whom am I expecting today… and every other day as well?