I believe! Wait, no I don’t!

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24)

Since I recommended reflecting on Mark 9:14-29 I thought we might spend some time digging into it together.

I relate to this father. I do not have a child with a life-threatening condition, but I relate to his desire for God to do something in his child’s life. I relate to the anguish he feels over his inability to help his son. I relate to the frustration he feels when he seeks help from those who should be able to help and it doesn’t come.

We do not need to have children to relate to this father. We only need to have a situation in our lives that is out of our control to change or fix. Illness. Job loss. Relationship issues. Addictions. It could be anything. We can all relate to this dad’s helplessness and frustration.

There are four things that are important for us to take away that relate to powerful prayers.

This father has heard that Jesus is in town. He knows of the miracles that Jesus has performed. He thinks maybe, just maybe, Jesus can help us. His son is possessed by a spirit that throws him into convulsions. He tries the disciples first because Jesus is not there at that moment. The disciples cannot seem to help this boy.

The inability of the disciples to heal the boy has caused a commotion between the disciples and the teachers of the law. There is speculation that the argument might be the teachers taunting the disciples for their failure and the disciples trying to defend themselves (and Jesus). The crowd has grown skeptical of the disciples and maybe even of Jesus of Himself.

Take-away #1: Sometimes things will get worse before they get better even as we pray.

When Jesus arrives, He quickly turns his attention to the father but he does not immediately address the situation of his son. In fact, the situation the father needs help with gets worse.

“When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. “ (v20)

Even as the boy is in the middle of this seizure, Jesus still does not address what seems to be the most evident problem. How often does it seem like our situations get worse after we have started praying over them? How often does it seem like we are not receiving any answers to what we believe is our immediate problem? When this happens to me, it shakes my confidence in my ability to pray a prayer that the Lord hears and responds to. That is why the next exchange is critical for us.

Take-away #2: It’s okay to voice our doubt.

The father says to Jesus “If you can….” He has doubt. On some level he believes Jesus can perform miracles or he would not have brought his son to Him. But there is doubt. Maybe he knew Jesus could heal others but wasn’t convinced He could heal his son. After all, others who should have been able to weren’t able to. Maybe his doubt was born out of their failure. Maybe he thought somehow he and his family deserved this problem and that they weren’t worthy of Jesus healing his son.

There are any number of reasons why this father might have doubted. There are any number of reasons why we might approach Jesus with doubt. Maybe we have been let down by people who should have been able to help. Maybe we have convinced ourselves that we deserve our problem, or we just aren’t worth the effort. Maybe our situation has gotten worse.

Whatever the reason for our doubt, this Scripture teaches us that it is okay to voice that doubt to Jesus. In fact, we need to voice our doubt. It is only then we put ourselves in the position of being made able to overcome it.

Take-away #3: Jesus may very well focus on growing our faith before fixing our situation.

Jesus responds; “’If you can’?” (v23)

Jesus knows the father is struggling with doubt and addresses it first. Before He deals with the situation of the son He addresses the father’s faith. Jesus desires to strengthen the father’s trust in Him. Jesus is interested in the quality of our relationship with him. We can take our doubt to the Lord. When we do though, we need to be prepared for Jesus to address our doubt before He addresses our situation.

We need to be prepared to hear Him speak back to us ‘If I can?’. Jesus wants us to acknowledge our doubt. He wants us to be honest about our lack of confidence. Only then will we truly be open to hear this next truth.

“Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Jesus will speak into our doubt the promise that God is bigger than anything we have going on. Even when others have seemingly failed us and our situation seems beyond hope, Jesus tells us that it is not. Our situation is not beyond hope, not beyond God.

But…we need to trust God.

Now, let’s be sure that we do not misinterpret this to say ‘everything will happen the way I think it should happen because I believe.’ That isn’t what it says. It says everything is possible. What this means is that when we believe that God can do what He says He can do, the possibilities for how God will act in our lives are limitless. That kind of confidence will give power to our prayers.

Take-away #4: Jesus does not require perfect faith to answer our prayers.

I love the father’s exclamation in reply: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (v24)

In one bold declaration the father steps out in faith. Despite the failure of the disciples and despite the worsening situation with his son, the father chooses to believe that Jesus can heal his son. Yet, in the same breath he owns that his faith is not perfect. He admits that he struggles with unbelief and gives that struggle to Jesus. He asks for help from the only One who can grow his faith.

We cannot grow in our faith until we admit we need to grow in our faith. We cannot grow in our confidence with our prayers until we ask Jesus to help us.

Jesus does not need, or require, perfect faith in order to work in our lives. In the midst of this father’s imperfect faith, Jesus healed his son. We do not need to have perfect faith to pray powerful prayers. We need a heart that believes and is willing to believe even more.

We start here: ‘I believe! Jesus show me where I have doubt and help me overcome my unbelief.”

Living Holy,

Denise