Mark 5:36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”
1 Corinthians 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Just like you can’t make darkness go away by wishing it away, you can’t make fear go away by wishing it away. The only way darkness cannot prevail is for light to be. A light can dispel darkness, but where a light is already on, darkness can’t approach. This is the same thing concerning fear, in the midst of fear the only way to break out is by believing in something good that is true, and the truth will set you free. The problem is, even though you can break out of fear by breaking into faith, there will still be, for a short time, residual emotions that must come down into the resting place of believing in the good news. The best way is to live with the light turned on at all times so that fear can’t even approach. That verse from Mark confronts the fear that is already happening, and Jesus says, “stop being afraid,” but then He says, “only believe.” The Christian life is a life of faith, and 1 John 5 says that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Because we are in Christ, we can approach every situation in life restfully, confident that there is nothing I am facing in life in Christ that his grace is insufficient for. As a matter of fact, the Scripture tells us that He has abounded all grace to me, and the word abounded means extra sufficient. The Christian life is not one of squeaking by, but it is always one that celebrates massive blowout wins. I listed those verses above about redemption because there are sometimes when we are facing situations where we can’t see the outcome in the immediate sense of the word, and it is easy at that point to be tempted into fear as we try to work out in our own minds how things are gonna turn out. The problem is, which is actually a great joy that makes the Christian life a wonderful adventure, Jesus does not always give us insight into what He is going to do with the situation in time and space, but here’s the thing we can rest in, and that is, that in Him we have (that means continually always have) redemption. Redemption is about making things new, full of new life, and purpose. Here is what we can know as we walk this life of faith in Christ; even though, in certain situations, we may not know what He’s going to do, or how He’s going to do what He is going to do, we can know that He’s going to do something and when he’s finished it will be redemptive. It’s just a biblical truth that part of being in him, is that you have as a governing principle in your life the reality of redemption. Yes, redemption means that even though He may not cause all things, He does cause all things to work together for good. This is redemption. A classic example of this kind of faith is when Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail awaiting probable death the next morning, and at midnight they began to sing hymns of praise, because they knew, first and foremost, that they were in Christ, and this was his situation, and that He was their redeemer. Whatever the outcome would be, it would not be a victory for the enemy, or for the fallen people that put them in jail, but it would be a triumph of Christ who redeems all things for those who are in Him.