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by Buzz Dahlen One of the dilemmas I have found that bothers many people today is that they think they know what God’s will is. The frustration occurs when things do not turn out, as they perceived; God’s plan and timing does not match up with our expectations. Recently, at our Wed. night home fellowship/bible study we looked at a portion of scripture that addressed this situation. When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'" But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?" Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe." He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat. Mark 5: 21-43 Imagine what Jairus must have gone through emotionally when Jesus stopped to ask, “Who touch me.” He didn’t have time for this, his daughter was dying. Imagine how he felt when they came to tell him that his daughter had already died. Jesus told him, "Don't be afraid; just believe." Believe in what, his daughter was already dead. We see how he felt when Jesus told her to “get up.” There is a lot to learn from this portion of scripture. One tid bit is, we need to have our expectations line up with God’s will and timing. When circumstances are not working out how we expect them to work out, we need to heed the words of Jesus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” By the way, we meet every Wednesday at 7pm in our home. Come join us. |
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