Remaining Confident in the Midst of Discouragement

A Lesson from Jesus and Jairus and his Daughter

By William R. Cunningham
December 2, 2007

Introduction

One of the toughest things that we need to do is to remain confident even in the midst of discouragement.  Sometimes we may decide to pursue a dream and then there are those who rise up to inform you of how you won’t be able to do it.  We call those people the “negative Nellies.”  We try to live a righteous life and there are those who arise to tempt us with sin that much more or to remind us of how we used to be.

We must remain confident in all aspects of our life so that we can excel in all that we do.  We must remain confident so that we will be motivated to reach the goals that we are trying to fulfill.  Don’t let the negative Nellies affect us, but instead, continue on our way to success.

In this lesson we are going to look at the situation involving Jairus and his daughter.  We will see how Jairus was wrought with discouragement, and how he prevailed in the end.

Lesson

Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. (Mark 5:21-24 NKJV)

Jesus had previously delivered a man from a multitude of evil spirit.  Jesus was by the sea along with a great multitude of people.  At this point, Jairus came to Jesus asking him to come to heal his daughter.  Jairus was a ruler of the Synagogue.

We note that Jairus fell to Jesus’ feet and begged him to come and heal his daughter.  This means that Jairus was desperate.
Have you ever been desperate about something?  Have you ever begged someone or even begged God for something.  Jairus probably had no where to turn.  Like the woman who was bleeding, the only place he had left to go was Jesus.  So we have here a man in a desperate situation.

Now Jairus came to Jesus and put his faith in him for his daughter’s sake.  He evidently knew that Jesus could heal his daughter because Jesus was already well known and had healed many people previously.  That was one of the reasons why the people were following Jesus.

Now you we can conclude that Jairus had hope because Jesus followed him back to his home to heal his daughter.  You can imagine the expectation that Jairus had.  He probably knew that his daughter would be well because Jesus was coming.

Haven’t you ever been in a desperate situation when things looked like they were going to be better?  You looked over the horizon and saw disaster, but now it appears that you are moving towards success and not calamity.

While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement. But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat. (Mark 5:35-43 NKJV)

Have you ever had that feeling of the rug being pulled from under you?  Have you ever been on a path that looked like it was leading you to deliverance or success only for something unexpected to happen that seems as though it would ruin everything?  That may be what Jairus felt when he got the news that his daughter was dead.

You can imagine the hope and expectation that Jairus had probably flew out the window so to speak.  All hope appeared to be lost, since there was no need for Jesus to come and heal his daughter, because she was dead.  In Jairus’ mind, it was probably too late.  There was nothing that Jesus could do.

Have you ever been in a situation when you thought all was lost?  Have you ever found yourself in a circumstance where all hope was lost and there was no sense in even praying about it, because it was a done deal, so to speak?  Perhaps Jairus felt like that.  All hope was lost.  He was too late and there was nothing that Jesus could do.  After all, Jesus couldn’t raise anyone from the dead—or so they thought.

Now we should notice that Jesus was going to Jairus’ house.  So that was more time that Jairus could worry about the situation.  Jesus told Jairus not to be afraid, but believe.  Evidently fear affects our ability to believe.  If Jairus had feared and not believed then perhaps he would have stopped Jesus from coming and his daughter would have remained dead.

Many times we see in the bible people are encouraged not to be afraid.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” (Genesis 15:1 NKJV)

Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; (Psalm 49:16 NKJV)

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:20 NKJV)

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. (Luke 1:13 NKJV)

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. (Revelation 1:17 NKJV)

So do not fear when the bad news come.  Remain confident even in the midst of trouble.

Now let’s look at another part of this incident that shows how people could discourage us even further.

Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him.

Jesus told the people that the little girl was not dead, but asleep.  The people around him ridiculed him after he said that.  Have you ever been in a situation where you declared something that you would do only to have someone else tell you that you couldn’t?  If anything, those people should have kept quiet if they didn’t have anything encouraging to say.  We do realize that in their minds there was no reason to hope, because the girl was dead.  What could be done after she died?  They evidently never saw Jesus raise anyone from the dead.

Imagine how you would feel if you declared that you would start a business, develop a community activity, or some other endeavor and someone told you that you don’t have enough skills, money, or resources to do it.  It becomes more difficult than it should be to remain confident because of all of the negatively thinking people.  It’s one thing to promote wisdom and there is another thing to dash someone’s dreams because of your pessimistic.

We even have negative influences as we try to live a righteous life.  Some will remind you of what you used to do and how you won’t be able to get out of it—whatever “it” is.  People have this knack to discourage you when you are trying to move forward in righteousness or success.  Perhaps, as some say, they want you to stay down where they are so that they feel better about their own failures or laziness.
We can only imagine the emotional pain that Jairus must have felt during the whole ordeal.  He went to get help from Jesus to get his daughter healed only to have people tell him that she was dead while he was on his way back with that help.  He had to witness the ridicule of Jesus by those who were present concerning the faith statement, if you will, that Jesus made.

The good news is that Jairus’ daughter was healed.  Jairus’ confidence prevailed.  You may argue that he didn’t do very much and that Jesus did all of the work.  However, when Jairus received the news that his daughter had died while he was on his way back home with Jesus, he could have dismissed the whole trip with Jesus.  He could have told Jesus, “thank you, but there is nothing that can be done now.”  However, he didn’t.  He remained confident even after Jesus encouraged him not to fear.  He remained confident after seeing his dead daughter.  He remained confident after witnessing the ridicule of Jesus by the people present.

Jairus remained confident even in the midst of discouragement.  We can do the same.  We should do our very best to remain confident when things around us discourage us from accomplishing our goals.  Stay true to your vision.  Stay faithful to what God wants you to do.  Find encouragement as much as possible and don’t let the fear, ignorance, and pessimism of others deter you from reaching your goals in Jesus Christ.  Amen.