Jesus Is Near
Are you facing a crisis that has driven you to your knees? Physical pain, financial turmoil, troubled marriage? Has your trial continued so long that your spirit has sunk into despondency?
Multitudes of Christians face excruciating situations beyond their control, and things seem hopeless. They’ve exhausted all their resources and pressed forward, believing that God will meet their needs; but their situation has gone from bad to worse. The more they pray, the further away God seems, and they think he no longer cares.
If this describes you, I want to encourage you. Do not give up! Jesus is near to you. He desires to meet your needs and give you a breakthrough, no matter how desperate your circumstances are.
A scene in Mark’s gospel addresses a desperate circumstance. A man named Jairus was a devoted God-fearer in an immediate crisis. “Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing [Jesus], he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.’” (Mark 5:22-23, ESV).
Imagine Jairus’s desperation. His young daughter was deathly ill, and when he learned that Jesus the healer was nearby, he ran to the Messiah. This man probably fell on his face and begged for a miracle, saying, “Lord, unless you do this, I have no hope. Doctors can’t help me. You must make my miracle happen.”
Note the exact phrase Jairus uses in the verse above: “So that she may be made well and live” (Mark 5:23). Jairus believed the Lord for the impossible, declaring, “Jesus, you can!” He knew that if Christ touched his daughter, she would be healed.
We know the rest of Jairus’s story. Jesus told the entire household, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping” (Mark 5:39).
Today, your situation may seem beyond hope, but not to Jesus. He raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead, and he is ready to step into your situation with the same resurrection power.