Part of my training at Children’s Hospital included knowing the \u201cfirst line of defense\u201d in case of fire or other emergencies. Knowing where the fire pulls and extinguishers are, as well as knowing the color codes and alerts in case of security issues.
In my personal life, I\u2019ve also come to learn my absolute first line of defense when I\u2019m faced with words that shake me to my core. I\u2019ve heard: \u201cYour daughter is diagnosed with cystic fibrosis!\u201c \u201cOur house is on fire!\u201d \u201cYour mother only has hours to live!\u201d \u201cHe was in a car accident!\u201d “Your husband has Stage 4 cancer!\u201d I wish that my first line of defense in all those instances had been \u201cI will not be afraid. I believe that God has me and He will work all things for good!\u201d
A great lesson came from one of my favorite Bible stories from Mark 5:35-36. It speaks of Jairus, a synagogue leader, who came to Jesus begging him to go with him to heal his daughter who was dying. As Jesus was going with him, some people from Jairus’ house came saying \u201cYour daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher any more?\u201d Here\u2019s my favorite line (the first line of defense) from Jesus to Jairus when He overheard their words: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid; just believe.\u201d I can even visualize that setting — Jesus putting one hand up (\u201cSTOP — don\u2019t think!\u201d) and the other hand with a finger up to his lips (\u201cShush — don\u2019t speak!\u201d).
\u201cWhy bother?\u201d Isn\u2019t that what the naysayers and doubters say and isn\u2019t that what the enemy of our souls wants us to say? It\u2019s the whisper we hear when the bad news comes. “Give up. It\u2019s Hopeless. I\u2019m afraid. I can\u2019t take this. I can’t handle it alone.”
Two little words change everything. \u201cBut Jesus.\u201d He has a different message, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid; just believe.\u201d Don\u2019t give up or let go of hope. Jesus is the Giver of life and it\u2019s not finished until He says so. He took her by the hand and said: “Little girl, I say to you, get up!\u201d. The girl stood up and began to walk around\u201d (Mark 5:41-42).
Above, I quoted lines from \u201cmy story\u201d. \u201cYour daughter has cystic fibrosis!\u201c But Jesus — that little girl was dramatically healed, has a 5-\u00bd octave vocal range and daily lives to give the good news of Jesus. \u201cOur house is on fire!\u201d But Jesus — those were words our daughter cried out to us when their home was burning. They were all safe, their insurance more than covered their losses, and rebuilt the home and have shared God’s goodness to others. \u201cYour mother only has hours to live!\u201d But Jesus — Mom recovered and lived a full life for another eight years. \u201cHe was in a car accident!\u201d But Jesus — our son survived what could have easily been a fatal car crash. \u201cYour husband has Stage 4 cancer!\u201d But Jesus — gave him and me such peace that passed understanding throughout the journey, and he WAS healed when he graduated to heaven.
Jairus\u2019 \u201clittle girl\u201d was his \u201cBut Jesus\u201d moment. What is your \u201clittle girl\u201d today? What is your first line of defense when those riveting times come? My first line of defense is Jesus\u2019 words \u201cDo not be afraid. Only believe.\u201d It’s not over until He says “It’s over!” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part of my training at Children’s Hospital included knowing the \u201cfirst line of defense\u201d in case of fire or other emergencies. Knowing where the fire pulls and extinguishers are, as well as knowing the color codes and alerts in case of security issues. In my personal life, I\u2019ve also come to learn my absolute first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12593],"tags":[8363,12592,12586,1373,2982,12590,12585,4391,12591,12589,12588,12587,125,5033],"class_list":["post-9666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defense","tag-bible-story","tag-but-jesus","tag-defense","tag-dont-be-afraid","tag-emergency","tag-extinguisher","tag-first-line-of-defense","tag-jairus","tag-little-girl","tag-mark-535-36","tag-mark-541-42","tag-only-believe","tag-security","tag-the-end"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9673,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666\/revisions\/9673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}