"While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said,

'My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.'

Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples."

-Matthew 9:18-19 (NIV)

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"When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes,

he said, 'Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.' But they laughed at him. 

After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up." 

-Matthew 9:23-25 (NIV)

 

Have you ever told someone your dreams, your plans for success, about your vision that seemed larger than life itself, and the ones that you told laughed at you?

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Have you ever suffered a misfortune and felt like your entire life was falling apart, and the ones that you expected to encourage you simply laughed at you?

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Have you ever told someone that you were going to overcome the battle that you were in, and they reminded you of the giant that stood before you, and then they laughed?

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If the answer to these questions is, "Yes!", then let me encourage you to "Let Them Laugh!"

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It is not easy when God plants a vision within you and you are so excited and eager to see this vision come into its full fruition that you tell everyone who will listen about this grand plan and vision that God has shown you. You are so happy about what's to come that you want everyone who you love to be a part of it. You want everyone that you love to reap the benefit of what God has promised you. But before you can share the full details of this vision, the person that you're confiding in laughs at you. They discourage you, telling you that you need to think twice and really weigh your options before you take the leap. Instead of motivating you and supporting this aspiration, they give you all the reasons as to why you're dreaming too big. They tell you all the stories of the failures of others who have tried to do what you're attempting to do. They remind you of your current financial situation and highlight how you couldn't possibly afford to tackle this vision when you can barely make ends meet now. And before you know it you allow their opinions to supersede the facts that God has shared with you about what He's going to do both through you and for you.

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And then there are those individuals who find humor in your misfortune. They tend to find your struggles entertaining. They find some kind of way to make you feel foolish and ashamed of where you are and what you're enduring. They constantly tell you how weak you are for having allowed yourself to be placed in the situation that you're in although at no fault of your own. They tend to tell you that if you were either more or less aggressive, more or less forgiving, more or less giving, then things would have turned out differently. The truth is that in their eyes; it will always be your fault. In their opinion, you will always be too much or too little of something. What they don't realize is that you've been doing what you're doing based on how God has led you. Therefore, this misfortune is not punishment. In all truth, it's not really misfortune. It is preparation for this thing that God has told you is going to be. It feels like complete turmoil, and it has even caused some embarrassment. However, although you don't understand it, you know it has to be the will of God because you wanted to make different choices. You wanted to take a different route. But for some reason, God chose to place you in a position to be ridiculed for your stance.

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Sometimes we face things that are more than beyond our control. Some of these trials are incomprehensible and ginormous. God is telling you to "Stand Strong!", but those around you are saying, "You lost this one. It's no way you can defy these odds." You're trying to hold on and they're laughing telling you that you're crazy for not letting go. There are some things that even if we had all the right connections, still would not pull us out of what we are in. There are some things that even if we had the fame or the money, we could not make them go away. There are some giants that God places in front of us that we are going to have to face. And at times people will laugh when we share our faith to overcome these things because they are looking at it from the perspective of their natural lens. It's gotten to a point that at times people gather in conversation to discuss how naïve you are for thinking that you can win this battle. They think that you are under the impression that you're invincible which is not so. You're just knowledgeable about and confident in the God that you serve.

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No matter what you're standing against or how long you've been there, don't you dare let people shift your stance. Don't you dare let them talk you out of your rightful place.

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In Matthew 9, as Jesus was teaching, he was approached by a synagogue leader whose daughter had passed. This man asked Jesus to come and lay hands on his child because he knew that if Jesus laid hands on her, she would live. Jesus and his disciples went to the man's house. When Jesus entered the house, it was loud and crowded. Jesus ordered everyone to go away. He told them that the girl was not dead but asleep. They LAUGHED at him. After the people went outside, Jesus went and grabbed the girl by the hand. And she got up!

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Understand that when people laugh at the dream that God has placed within you, when they laugh at the trial that God has placed upon you, when they laugh at your proclaiming that you're going to defeat the giant that God says He'll allow you to conquer, know that they are not laughing at you, but they're laughing at God. And when man laughs at God, He simply performs.

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God is a matter-of-fact God when it comes to His ability to deliver. He is not surprised by what He can do. He is not deterred by what people says He can't do. He maintains His movement and simply performs. One thing about this story that we can't let go unnoticed, is the fact that Jesus made them all go outside before he laid hands on the girl and performed this miracle. There are a lot of things that we can learn from this. Let's Explore:

 

(1) First, Jesus automatically hushed them by making it known that they did not know what they thought they knew. Jesus did not literally tell them to be quiet, but he told them to go away. The people had already spoken defeat over this girl. They were already playing the pipes. But Jesus quickly corrected them by saying, "Go away. This girl is not dead but asleep." Jesus put them on notice that they had it "twisted". He was not going to allow the people to continue mourning this girl because he knew that she was not dead. Jesus was speaking against her circumstance. They knew what they saw but Jesus knew what he knew. Everyone else can look at your circumstance and see you as defeated while God is looking at the same circumstance proclaiming you victorious.

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(2) You don't have to prove yourself to man as it concerns the things that God has promised you. You don't have to prove to anyone that you can do what God has said you can do. You don't have to prove to anyone that what you're suffering won't overtake you. You don't have to prove to anyone that you're going to win the battle that God has already said you'll win. Jesus could have performed this work with all the people watching but he had nothing to prove. He did not have to persuade them. While God does perform miracles and does things so that people can recognize His glory and power, it is not from a standpoint of Him needing to be accepted.

 

Sometimes we find ourselves trying to prove things to people to gain their acceptance although we think it's us trying to show them what we're made of. Jesus' intent was never to gain fame for who he was. It was always Jesus' will that people saw the Father, God, that worked through him. Jesus always acknowledged and reverenced God as the source of his power and as the source from which he was able to perform miracles. Jesus did not beg people to believe in him. Jesus proclaimed who he was without wavering and left it up to each individual to accept or reject it. If they accepted, he was happy for their eyes having been opened that they may be led toward salvation and if they rejected, he did not allow it to defeat him.

 

In Luke 4, we read the account of Jesus being rejected in his hometown. Jesus had returned to Nazareth and was speaking in the synagogue. Having been amazed by his proclaiming that he was the one that God had sent, and being amazed by what he had spoken, the people asked, "Is this not Joseph's son?" In verse 24, Jesus states, "Truly I tell you…no prophet is accepted in his hometown" (NIV). Jesus understood that it was the ones most familiar with you that would reject you because they see you for who they know you to be and for who they think you are. Jesus understood that it was easier to find acceptance by strangers than loved ones. Jesus had just come from Galilee where people praised him and then came to his hometown where they could not get past their knowing that he was the carpenter's son. Strangers are more willing to accept you for who you say you are while those closest to you might look at you based on their clouded view of who you are. You might often find that strangers have more confidence in you while those that know you are stuck on where you come from and stuck in their own opinion of your capabilities. Don't worry about acceptance when you know that God has appointed you.

 

(3) You must shut the doubters out. The biggest hindrance to faith is doubt. Jesus knew the doubt  that lied within these people that mocked and laughed at him. Jesus understood that anything that spoke against what he was about to do needed to be dismissed. Sometimes it's not about you simply speaking against the doubt that others place upon you, but you must completely shut them out. There are times when you are going to have to decide not just to ignore those that speak defeat over you, but you are going to have to show them the door. You cannot keep inviting doubters and naysayers into your "place of residence".

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The Alignment of Our Faith

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There are two distinct things about how Jesus chose to perform this miracle:

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First, because Jesus knows what he knows, all he had to do was touch someone in order to speak life back into them. Jesus is so powerful that he could have simply blown his breath upon someone, and their entire life would have be transformed. Better yet, Jesus could have been standing in the synagogue and simply said, "Get up!", and there is no doubt that the girl would have risen right from where she was. But Jesus did neither. Jesus grabbed the girl's hand, just a touch, and she got up.

 

Jesus did not verbally command the girl to get up as he may have done when performing other miracles. Jesus simply grabbed her hand which highlights the second thing of significance about how Jesus chose to do this:

 

Let's rewind. If we revisit Matthew 9:19, the synagogue leader told Jesus that he believed that if Jesus put his hands on his daughter, she would live. Now focus on what Jesus did while performing this miracle. I do not believe it to be mere coincidence. Jesus took the girl by the hand and she got up. If we're not paying attention, we'll miss this. Jesus operated based on the man's faith. The man's faith was that all Jesus had to do was touch her. Jesus could have performed this miracle in various ways, but he chose to touch her. If we look at the various miracles that Jesus performed, we will find that in many of these moments, he stated "according to your faith". Jesus performed this miracle in alignment with what the man believed. The man believed that Jesus' touch was enough to resurrect his daughter and Jesus did just that.

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God can do anything. Even when we may not have faith, His grace, mercy, and compassion for us may still cause Him to deliver and meet our needs. However, there are times in which we will have to activate our faith. God has all power in His hands, but some things won't be unless we exercise our faith and put our faith into action. We must believe in the power of God. We cannot ask and then doubt. We must fully and wholeheartedly believe.

 

Don't allow yourself to be discouraged or turned aside by those who don't believe in you. Don't worry about people laughing at you. Don't be disheartened when people speak against that thing that God has placed inside you. Keep pushing forward. Stay the path that God has you on. And remember that God has the final say-so. If God promised it, then know that it's going to be. "LET THEM LAUGH"... because not only is God going to "shut them out" but he is going to RAISE YOU UP, and it won't be a thing that they can do about it.