Just Believe

 "While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. 'Your daughter is dead,' they said. 'Why bother the Teacher anymore?'  Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him (Jairus), 'Don't be afraid; just believe.'" 

    While shopping recently, I saw a decorative sign that said, "Just Believe," and I wondered in what do they want me to believe? 

    Faith is of value only when the object of that faith is trustworthy and true. If I sit down in a broken chair, even though I had all the faith I could muster placed in that chair, when it breaks beneath me, all my faith was for naught. The fault lay not with my level of faith, but in the compromised chair. 

    Put yourself in the sandals of Jairus here. When he had seen Jesus, he fell at his feet pleading for his daughter's life: "My little daughter is dying. Please come put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." (Mark 5:23) 

    When word came that his beloved child had died, had her father just sat down in a broken chair, so to speak, which splintered beneath the burden?

    Look what Jesus was asking him to believe! Hadn't Death had the final say? Hadn't the curtains been drawn as the girl's soul had left her body? What hope had Jairus now?

    Imagine the tear-filled eyes of the anguished dad meeting the steady gaze of the Savior. Perhaps Jesus gripped Jairus by the shoulders, lending His strength to the grieving man. "Don't be afraid; just believe!" 

    Now imagine the astonished parents who witnessed the resurrection of their dead daughter! Indeed, just as Jairus had believed, Jesus laid his hands on the girl and she lived.

    How simple it is: Just believe. How simple, yet so wildly complex! If we but have the faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains. (Matthew 17:20)

    Just believe. Jesus asks the same of us today. Over and over again, He implored his listeners, "Believe also in me." Will we be like his very own brothers who did not believe in him? (John 7:5) Or, with the help of God, will we hang our hats with that of Simon Peter who avered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6: 68, 69)

    In what do you believe? The government? Money? Yourself? When you draw your last breath, you have but one hope in this world: Jesus the Christ. Just believe in Him.

"Though you haven't seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1, 8, 9