Do not fear
It’s really easy to just get overwhelmed with anxiety about what we don't know that lies ahead. More questions than answers kind of thing. I think everyone can relate. We like to be able to predict what is next and have a plan for how we are going to face it. The truth is...life rarely works according to the plan. God doesn’t care about our plans.
And when I read scripture, I see story after story of people whose lives didn’t go according to the plan. Noah didn’t plan on being in that boat. Abraham didn’t plan on...well, pretty much anything that happened to him. And Moses. And David. Peter and Paul. I mean, God doesn’t really conform to our plans.
But lately, we have been overwhelmed with the future. The unseen things that are in front of us, both short and long term, present challenges that we don’t know how to navigate, and we can’t learn how to navigate. The answer isn’t in a book. It’s not in therapy. It’s not in friends, relationships, or just digging in a little harder. In fact, it’s hard to know what the answer is in. And I think that is because He is trying to show us that it’s only in Him.
Monday morning in my prayer time, God put this verse on my heart...Mark 5:36. That was all. I had no idea. I scrambled for my phone, looked up the scripture, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” Afraid of what? Why are you telling me this? What does that mean?
I read the story. And reread the story. I have no idea what the message is. I’m totally confused. I open my google docs, write it down, and pray about it all week. “What do You want me to see here?”
All week long, I have been trying to live in this story. Jesus moves toward the room where the dead body of Jairus’ daughter would lie with the simple statement, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” He enters the home to find hopelessness, “crying and wailing,” the Bible says. He walks in so much faith that He can say, “She is only asleep.” This all moments before she would be walking around and eating in front of them.
Last night Jennifer and I went to the grocery store. We’ve been struggling all week, all month, with what the future holds. We picked up a few sale items we could use at House of the Harvest. That only amounted to about nine buggies worth. In the middle of all that, a random woman, unknown to us, stops to talk to Jennifer. Noticing a buggy full of graham crackers, she asks, “Those must be on sale?” Jennifer explains why someone would be buying two hundred boxes of graham crackers.
Immediately our newly found friend begins to share with Jennifer. They talk for about fifteen minutes while I am checking out. I walk over to get another buggy and see my wife standing there in tears. I move into the conversation, as our friend explains, “I was just telling your wife that God has given me a word for your family as I stand here.” She continues, “He wants you to know that the suffering you are doing in silence will soon be rewarded. He wants you to have faith that whatever it is that your house needs, it has already been given.”
Sometimes I wonder why it’s so easy to walk in fear. I guess, living in this world, the ruler of the world knows how to make us doubt. But there is a voice that is stronger than the enemies. And that voice says, “Do not be afraid, only believe.” The answer was given long before Jennifer and I began walking this Earth.
We needed that moment last night at Kroger on Highway 72. God orchestrated exactly what we need. Our friend shared with us that she had intended to be at the store an hour earlier and got held up. She came in for one thing...that was sold out. She was brought there for us. In a time when we needed her to be, to deliver a message that she did not even know, to two people that she knew even less.
And the message is clear...increase our faith.
“Do not be afraid, only believe.” Mark 5:36