Mark 9:20-24 "I Believe -Help My Unbelief"

          When it comes to true faith, we have a dilemma.  Our dilemma is that we might truly want to believe, but our experiences in life kind of put a damper on our faith –our ability to believe.  Let’s be honest.  We are skeptical by nature.  We really do want to grab a hold of all of the Bible's promises and believe them with all of our hearts, but when our experiences collide with the promises, when the physical world collides with the supernatural, we tend to think the physical is dominant.  But this is the very crux of what it means to be people of faith.  It’s not a matter of wishing harder –it’s not a matter of trying harder –it’s not a matter of setting aside our logic and our reason –it’s not a matter of hoping for the impossible –it’s simply a matter of believing that when the two worlds collide, the divine supercedes the mundane –the spiritual is stronger than the physical.  When we begin to grasp that, all things are possible.

         But even the ability to see these things with our spiritual eyes and receive them with our hearts is a gift from God.  There’s a story in the Bible that illustrates.

Mark 9:20-24

So they brought him to Him. When the spirit saw Him, it immediately convulsed the boy. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. “How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father.
“From childhood,” he said. “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Then Jesus said to him, “‘If You can’? Everything is possible to the one who believes.”
Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe! Help my unbelief.”

 

          What I want to really call attention to is this desperate father’s simple prayer – a prayer Jesus answered –“I believe, help my unbelief.”  Sometimes that’s the best we can do –we come to God in obedience, ask Him to act, to provide, to heal, to restore, to fill and empower us to do the things He wants us to do –all the while knowing that it’s beyond our ability –yet asking God for the faith, the belief that is necessary to trust Him.  I have no ability to do the supernatural –but the Holy Spirit in me is, in fact, supernatural.  God, help me believe that when the two worlds collide, the supernatural overwhelms the natural.  I do believe –help my unbelief.

         If this is starting to make some sense to you, why don’t you pray that simple prayer out loud to God, right now.  “God, I do believe –help my unbelief.”