The story of Jarius and his daughter, found in Mark 5, starts out predictably. Jarius’ daughter was gravely ill. Jarius naturally ran to Jesus. Jesus agreed to help and we get the feeling that we know exactly where this story is headed.

And then Jesus got interrupted.

By the time that Jesus was finished, messengers had arrived to tell Jarius that his daughter was dead. “It’s too late!” they told Jarius. “Your daughter is dead. Even Jesus can’t help you anymore.”

I wonder how often we do the same thing. How often do we come to a point when we are praying for something specific and then, when Jesus doesn’t answer our prayer in the timeframe that we think He should, we decide that maybe God can’t help after all. Maybe this one is just too hard. Maybe God doesn’t care enough. Maybe it’s too late. We give up and stop praying.

Death has a certain finality to it, and in Jarius’s devastated state he might have accepted the reality that his daughter was dead and walked away. Before he got the chance, Jesus stopped him. “Do not be afraid; only believe,” Jesus said, and they continued walking to Jarius’s house.

Jesus was urging Jarius to hold on to the faith that had brought him to Jesus in the first place. And Jesus came through. He raised that little girl from the dead!

If you are praying for an impossible situation, keep praying until you get an answer. (That answer may not be “yes,” but keep praying until you hear from God.) We must not let discouragement or laziness come between our crisis and divine intervention. Keep believing God.

(For those who have missed any of the previous lessons, you can go to https://comethirstyministry.com/blog/ and view all previous postings.)

Week Thirty-Three

Day 1: Matthew 27:11-26 (Pilate’s wife)
Day 2: Matthew 27:45-66 (The women at Jesus’ death)
Day 3: Matthew 28:1-20 (Mary and Mary)
Day 4: Mark 1:1-30 (Peter’s Mother-In-Law)
Day 5: Mark 5:21-24 and 35-43 (Jarius’s daughter)