Luke 8:50
But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.

Jairus was desperate.  His only daughter was at death’s door, and he needed to do something.  So he goes to the only one who could help.  He takes his request to Jesus, and to his relief, Jesus agrees to come to his house and help his little girl.  He probably feels time slipping away.  The situation was urgent.  He didn’t want his daughter to die.  But people were getting in the way.  The multitude was thronging Jesus, slowing Him down, and then a lady comes and touches Jesus, and now He stops to talk to her.

But this wasn’t an inconvenience.  It wasn’t a misfortune.  It wasn’t that Jairus was missing his chance for Jesus to intervene in his daughter’s desperate situation.  Jesus was giving Jairus—and us—an example of what faith could do, because Jairus was going to need faith in his situation.  Jesus was showing that He had the power in those situations where man is no help, because Jairus was going to need to depend on Jesus alone.  Jesus was showing that wholeness was possible, that a miracle could happen, that trusting Him would make a difference.

So as Jairus stands there, perhaps impatiently wishing that Jesus would hurry up, he gets news that his daughter has died.  And before all hope can fly from his heart and before despair could sink in, Jesus gives him this reassurance.  The only question left to Jairus was, would he trust Him?  And that is also the question to us.  Have we seen enough for ourselves to trust Jesus in our situation?  Will we also have faith and believe and then experience something amazing in our lives, as well?  Will we let go of fear and simply believe?

If we do believe, we will always be left in astonishment of what Jesus can do.  If we choose to trust Him when it feels like time is running out and all hope is lost, we can witness miracles in our lives.  So may these things that God has allowed us to witness in His Word encourage us in our faith.  May these people who trusted Him thousands of years ago encourage us to trust Him, too.  And may we not be fearful, but instead only believe.