Luke 8:49-50
While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.  But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.

In this moment, Jairus has a choice to make.  On the one hand was the voice telling him that all hope was lost, that his daughter was gone and there was no point in doing anything else.  On the other hand is the voice of Jesus telling him to just have faith, to not be afraid, to not doubt, but to trust Him in this very difficult situation.  It was one thing to trust Jesus to make her well while she yet clung to life, but it was something else completely to trust Jesus if she had already died.  Was it really too late?

We also have a choice to make in the various situations we face in life.  We have to choose who we will believe—Jesus or a world that tells us believing Him is pointless.  We have to choose what we will believe about Jesus.  Is He the Messiah?  Is He a Savior?  Is He God?  What kinds of things can He do?  We have to choose what we believe about what He says.  Is His Word truth?  Does He mean what He says?  Does it apply to us?  Then we have to choose if we will believe.

For Jairus, the situation was that his daughter was dead.  To his human reasoning that meant it was too late, that nothing could be done, that she was gone for good.  But Jesus says not to be afraid.  Jesus says to just believe.  Jesus says she will be whole no matter what her current state was.  And when he chose to believe, he saw that it was worth it to believe wholeheartedly in Jesus, to trust Him fully, to bank on everything He had said.

Many will try to convince us that it doesn’t do any good to believe what Jesus says, that it’s not true or it doesn’t matter.  Sometimes doubts can fill our hearts.  Sometimes fear casts out our faith.  But may we come to understand that we really don’t have to fear, because Jesus will do what is best.  We can believe, because Jesus can do impossible things.  So may we trust Him above all others and hear his voice over all other voices and choose to have faith in Jesus and all that He says.