“But Jesus refused to listen to what they were told and said to the Jewish official, ‘Don’t yield to fear. All you need to do is to keep on believing.'”
Mark 5:36 (TPT)
Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger. Whether the threat is real or imagined.
In Mark, we read about a woman who overcame the fear of being stoned because her illness made her ceremonially unclean and disqualified her from mixing with crowds of people. She could have been stoned to death, but she did not yield to fear. Fear always anticipates something unpleasant or negative. Instead of imagining the worst, as fear would have you to do, this woman saw herself touching Jesus’ garment. She did not allow fear to keep her out of God’s purpose for her life. Faith comes from God; fear comes from Satan. Faith leads us to success. Fear leads us to failure. It’s been said, “Fear tolerated is faith contaminated.”
One way we stop fear from entering is to watch the words we hear and speak. Jesus was on His way to Jairus’ house, a ruler in the synagogue, when the woman with an issue of blood stopped Him. Jairus’ daughter was at the point of death, so Jairus begged Jesus to lay His hands on her so she would live. While they were on their way and He was still speaking to the woman, someone came from the ruler’s house and said “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to Jairus, “Don’t yield to fear. Only believe.” Jairus did what Jesus said, and his daughter was healed from that moment.
Words are spiritual containers that can bring life or death. The doctor may say to you, “It could be cancer.” But Jesus will say, “Don’t yield to fear. Only believe!” Doctors will tell you facts. It was a fact that Jairus’ daughter was dead. I am not against doctors. Doctors only say what they see. They are trained that way. But I learned at Word of Life to live by truth, not facts (John 8:32). If I keep speaking the facts the truth cannot work. I cannot allow facts to rob me of the truth. There are always two reports. Facts and Truth (Isaiah 53:1). Choose to live by the truth, which is God’s Word (John 17:17).
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Living free and fearless is about trusting God with all of our hearts (Proverbs 3:5). There’s a difference between trusting God with your heart and understanding things with your mind. On one of my doctor’s visits, I was having discomfort urinating. So, he examined me and said “It could be cancer. You better go see a specialist and have them run tests.” As soon as I heard the word “cancer”, fear tried to grip me. The enemy reminded me that my brother was battling with cancer. The battle was on. Battling fear was not easy. Night and day, it tried to control my mind, which affected my emotions.
Pastor Art taught us that your faith will never rise above your confession. Fear brings panic. Panic is a sudden, overwhelming fear “with” or “without” cause that produces hysterical or irritational behavior. So, I had to keep speaking to the mountain of fear as Jesus speaks TO the mountain, not ABOUT the mountain. My mountain was my doctor’s report. For you it could be something else. Whatever the case may be, we must confess what we believe. Fear will try to convince you of something that has not even happened or ever will happen.
My report came out negative! Living free and fearless is taking God at His Word and making it the final authority in your life. (Elder Henry Acevedo)
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“To live free and fearless, I live by the TRUTH of God’s Word and not by facts.”
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
Our Bible Reading Plan gives 25 daily readings per month. There is no scheduled reading for today. You can use this time to catch up on any readings you may have missed, or read through previous passages again.
