I got up earlier than usual this morning… which seemed to be the norm this week… and gingerly meandered through the dark house, opening blinds, getting the coffee brewing and turning on the home entertainment system in order to catch The Bill Gather’s Weekly Homecoming broadcast. The show didn’t actually start for over an hour, but I thought that I’d just start the day off by listening to some good old Southern Gospel tunes.
After the coffee was poured and I had seated myself
in my study, I found myself engrossed in my Bible, with one ear listening to
the music drifting in from the living room.
At one point I heard a song that sounded somewhat familiar, but
struggled as to recall why. And then I
remembered and had to laugh as Fiver began to slowly but purposely
whimper.
It was one of the few songs that he does NOT
enjoy listening to! I’m not sure if it
is the harmony or the particular instrumentation that causes him to whimper… and
then break out into spontaneous HOWLING!
So… without a moment’s hesitation, I immediately jumped
up from my desk… telling the dog that it was going to be okay…
and ran into the living room to temporarily change the station on the Sirius XM
network that I was tuned into to. And
you know… it worked. When I
returned back into the study, Fiver had closed his eyes and was quietly resting
on the love seat, while the first rays of daylight had begun to fill the room!
Once back at my desk, I continued where I had left
off in my daily Bible study… and then, had to laugh again! I had been studying the events that had
occurred one day when Jesus had been stopped by the leader of the local
synagogue who pleaded with the Lord to come to his house and to heal his
daughter who lay gravely sick in bed.
Jesus agreed to the leader’s request and began to
follow the man to his home. But along
the way, Jesus’ motion was halted by the faith of sick woman who had literally
crawled through the crowd that thronged Jesus and touched His garment,
believing that "if only
I may touch His clothes, I will be healed." (Mark 5:28 – EMTV)
Then, after Jesus had addressed the newly healed
woman, He turned to continue on with His original mission when, some folks from
the synagogue leader’s home approached them and said,
“Your daughter is dead. There’s no
need to bring Jesus anymore.” (Mark 5:35 -The Remedy)
But it was Jesus’s immediate response that caused me
to laugh! According to John Mark, with
whom there is general agreement that he received much of the information in his
gospel from the first-hand reports of the Apostle Peter,*
“Jesus immediately, when He heard the
word being spoken, said to the synagogue leader, "Do not be afraid; only
believe." (Mark 5:36 -
EMTV)
The Voice Translation renders Jesus’ reply as,
“It’s alright (or ‘It’s okay’),
Don’t be afraid, just believe.”
I was forced to chuckle
because Jesus’ reaction was very similar to mine when the music was playing and
the quartet began to sing and thereby set Fiver up to HOWL in his
negative response to what he was hearing. And while my adventure with Fiver this
morning was funny, it does point out a valuable lesson for the personal
application of our faith in the Word of God!
For you see,
the leader of the synagogue named Jairus, had approached Jesus in faith, believing
that the Word that the Master had been preaching and teaching all over the area
was the truth and would be confirmed by the physical healing of his daughter. I believe that Jesus saw the faith of this
man, just as He had seen the woman’s faith through her actions as she fought
her way through the crowd to reach Him.
Jesus knew that the faith bonding Jairus to his
miracle was vulnerable to the negative reports that came from the seemingly ‘helpful’
friends bringing the bad news about his daughter. So, what did Jesus do when he heard the words
of doubt, unbelief, and failure… words that described one who
had given up any hope? He
immediately grabbed Jairus’ attention and told him to keep his faith
on the Word of God and the miracle that he was believing for!
I especially like the paraphrase version of Mark 5:36
that I read this morning from Piper’s old The Way, Living Bible Illustrated where
it states that,
“Jesus IGNORED their comments and
said to Jairus, ‘Don’t be afraid. Just
trust me!”
I am drawn to this version because it was exactly what
I needed to do when I was besieged with fearful reports by various family,
friends, neighbors and strangers alike, concerning what they thought was happening
to Piper and felt free to share their (un-informed) negative suggestions
on what I should be doing about it! (like giving up on her and on God) It took me a while, but I finally learned to
smile and thank them for their input… and then ignore their faith-stealing
words!
It was the most efficient way for me to keep Piper’s
and my faith focused on the truth of God’s Word and His reality what
we were believing for.
So, what’s my point? Stay aware of your circumstances, stay
in faith for what you are believing for with a faith that is firmly
founded on God’s Word of truth and don’t allow any access to other
people’s words of fear, doubt, unbelief and thoughts that you
might want to give up!
When you read on in the verses following Mark 5:36,
you’ll see that Jairus followed Jesus’ instructions, ignored all
the fear and doubt in the people around him and received the
miracle of his daughter being healed and made perfectly whole!
Now that’s the results of my FAITH that
I want to receive every time I believe for something that is based on the truth
of God’s Word… Kind of makes me want to HOWL for joy!
How about you?
Have a GREAT weekend, stay in faith and
keep an eye and ear out for HOWLING dogs!
*Study footnotes from
The Ryrie Study Bible – NASV – copyright 1976, 1978 by The Moody Bible
Institute of Chicago
