Less fear, more faith

Mark 5

“Don’t be afraid. Only believe” (verse 36).

Jesus says to us, ‘Don’t stop believing.’ He says to us, ‘Keep on believing.’

Throughout life, each of us is involved in a battle. It’s a battle against fear. It’s a battle for faith.

How are we to win the victory?

“Perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Do we, ever, have perfect love? No! We don’t, but there is a perfect love that drives out fear. It’s the love of God. His love is perfect love. It’s God’s love that drives out fear. It’s God’s love that will lift us out of fear. It’s God’s love that will lift us into faith.

Our feelings drag us down into fear. How are we to rise above our feelings? Jesus calls us from these negative feelings, He calls us on to greater faith in him, and greater love for him.

When everything seems to be hopeless, Jesus says to us, ‘There is hope.’

In Mark 5, we read about the demon-possessed man, the woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years, and the twelve year old girl who became seriously ill and died.

Was there any hope for these three people? Humanly speaking, it didn’t look like there was any hope for them, ‘Humanly speaking’: Is that all that we have? Jesus says to us, “There is more than ‘humanly speaking.'” There is Jesus. There is love. There is hope.

What do we learn from these three miracles? We learn that Jesus is, still, with us. We learn that he leads us into his victory.

Let’s look together at these three miracles, and see how they can help us to face our fears. Let us see how they can help us to step into the future with faith in the Lord Jesus.

As we think about these three miracles, we will see that they are more than ‘once upon a time’ stories. Each of these three miracles contains a message of hope and encouragement for us, today.

We face situations that seem, to us, to be hopeless. We say, ‘I can’t do anything about this.’ We look at hopeless situations, and we say to ourselves, ‘This is never going to end.’ We try to make sense of it all. We look at what’s going on, and we say, ‘Things are just going from bad to worse.’ The more we think about things, the more we find ourselves thinking, ‘Can this get any worse than it already is?’

‘I can’t do anything about this.’

Things are out of control. When it feels like things are out of control, we must ask ourselves what we’re really saying. Are we saying, ‘Things are out of our control’? or Are we saying, ‘Things are out of the Lord’s control’? We wonder, ‘Will evil triumph over good’? These are the questions that come to mind when we read about the demon-possessed man. When we feel like we’re going under, when we feel that fear is taking over, let us remember the miracle of the healing of the demon-possessed man. Do not think that any of us has ever sunk so low that we cannot be raised up again by the love and power of the Lord.

‘This just seems to go on and on.’

We read about the woman who had been suffering from bleeding for twelve years. What do you think she was feeling like? Is there no end to this? Will things ever be turned around? Will there ever be a day of rejoicing? Will I just have to live with this? Does it mean that God doesn’t love me? These are the kind of questions that would have been on her mind.

All of her questions were answered the day that Jesus healed her. This was the beginning of a new life for her.

There’s a message of encouragement, here, for all of us. Into the darkness of our confused and confusing emotions, there comes a light that is shining brightly. It’s the bright shining light of God’s love. Whatever may happen to us, let us never lose sight of God’s love. His love is the love that will not let us go. It’s the love that never gives up on us. It’s the love that keeps on trying to win us over. It’s the love that says to us, ‘My love for you will never come to an end.’

‘Things are going from bad to worse.’ ‘Can things get any worse than this?’

The story of the little girl begins with her serious illness. Then, it goes on, from there, to her death. What are the thoughts that come to us, as we read this story?

As the girl’s father saw that things were only getting worse for his daughter, he must have been thinking, ‘It’s all downhill from here.’ What are we to do when we feel like this? We need to recognize that there are things that we can’t change, but there’s something else we must never forget. We can become changed people. We can be changed by the Lord.

The girl died. The father was thinking, ‘Can things get any worse than this?’ Humanly speaking, the answer is ‘No!’ They don’t get any worse than this. Death is the end.’ Again, we must ask the question, ‘Is “humanly speaking” all that we have?’ or ‘Is there more than this?’

As we travel on through the life of Christ, we come to his death on the cross, but that is not where the story ends. Beyond his death, there is his resurrection. This where our hoper fpr the future comes from. Jesus has risen from the dead. Through faith in him, we will be raised with him to eternal life. This is Good News!