Let Them Laugh

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

LET THEM LAUGH

Luke 8:49-56

49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," he said. "Don't bother the teacher any more." 50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."  51 When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother. 52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. "Stop wailing," Jesus said. "She is not dead but asleep."  53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, "My child, get up!"  55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

NIV

Having looked at the words of Jesus telling us, “Don’t be afraid; just believe”, we see one more truth here that we need to note. We also considered that we should “Stop wailing” about our infirmities, or our aches and pains, but the other truth we want to look into is about the people who laughed at him, knowing, or believing they knew the facts. How many times have we been laughed at because of our faith? Some people think they know the facts but because of our faith, we do not have to deal with facts because we know the Living God, and Jesus told us that if we ask anything in His name, he will do it, and when Jesus does anything it usually, if not always, defies the facts. Like the fact those many years ago when I did not have two dimes to rub together, and God told me He would give me a new home in the suburbs. When I testified on Sunday morning, in church, what God was going to do, I heard some laugh. On the day I needed three thousand dollars to put down to start the mortgage proceedings, it came to me the night before from an impossible source. God did what he said he would do. Or like the time I had my heart attack and I asked Jesus to let me live because my wife was not ready to be alone. God kept me alive overnight until the doctors were ready for me, and when they looked at my heart, they said I should be dead, but I told them God was keeping me alive until they could clear the brokerage that should have killed me. Or like the time I walked into a model home here in Ohio and God spoke those words, “Move here” clearly in my ears, and I put money down on a home to be built and went back to Illinois and sold our home of twenty-seven years within one day. Faith will defy the facts, and throughout people laughed, not believing that God would do that much for me. If we live by faith and believe what Jesus said, and act upon our faith, people may well laugh at us, because they live by facts instead of faith. Time and time again, God has given me more than I desire, yet maybe it is simply because I believe what He says. Faith moves mountains, facts try to move them, but fail every time. Let them laugh, they only see with their eyes, we see with our faith. They laughed at Jesus, seeing a dead girl, Jesus saw a sleeping girl and woke her up. Let us live by the faith we profess, believing what Jesus said, believing the truth the Spirit has led us to, faith overpowers their laughing. So let them laugh.