Help My Unbelief

Mark 9

​We, as followers of Jesus can often find ourselves having faith in Christ but needing His help to trust Him more, especially as we face obstacles and difficulties that are out of our control.

We often try so hard fix the issues in and around us, our family, and friends, only to discover that we cannot control them in our own power and strength. We usually discover that we fail with expectant prayer because of a lack of faith in the only One who can fix many of our biggest sins, struggles, problems, and difficulties.

“And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:23–24 (ESV)

Throughout Mark 9, we see the teaching of Jesus in some paradoxes in the Christian life. Warren Wiersbe portrays the paradoxical points as “glory out of suffering, victory out of defeat, greatness out of service, and gain out of loss,” which emphasizes the point that “If you pamper sin in your life, you will lose your “salty” character and not be able to affect others for Christ.”

As followers of Jesus, we need to deal drastically with sin as a surgeon does with a scalpel on a cancerous tumor. We gain by losing that which is destroying us from the inside. Billy Sunday once said, “One reason sin flourish is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake!”

We can understand through the Transfiguration experience that sometimes we just don’t know what to say and many times do not know what to do when faced with spiritual things, when experiencing a difficult dilemma, or when addicted to a particular sinful behavior. In this case Peter and the few were faced with something so supernatural and heavenly that there was confusion and an offer of a tent, as this was probably in the time-period of the Jewish celebration of the Festival of Shelters.

Because of the great difficulties in our daily journey, I want to home in on the paradox of victory out of defeat, as we continue to face what seemingly feels like defeat daily in the life in this dark world. The disciples and this boy with an unclean spirit’s father failed to deliver him from the spirit which possessed him from birth. This grieved the Lord, gave support to the enemy, and robbed God of glory.

The nine disciples who were left behind had neglected their spiritual disciplines, specifically prayer, and they lost their power, power that is fueled by an expectant faith. The disciples were believing, but not believing, something that we in our humanity often do.

A man reported to Christ that his disciples had been unable to cast a demon out of his son.

“And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.” Mark 9:14–17 (ESV)

Expressing dismay at their lack of faith, Christ asked the man whether he believed he could help him. When the man expressed tentative faith, Christ healed his son, then explained to his disciples why they had been unable to heal.

“And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” Mark 9:28–29 (ESV)

Like the boy’s father, we as Christians can find ourselves having faith in Christ but needing his help to trust him more. We can find ourselves with a lack of faith and a forgetfulness to pray first.

Remember, faith and confidence only grow when we focus on the promises of God, the fulfilled promises of Jesus, past answered prayers, and continual study of God’s Word.
“So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17 (ESV)

How is your faith today? Are you growing in your faith? Do you believe all things are possible in and through Christ Jesus and His sovereign and transcendent power? Where is it you struggle most in your belief? Is there something too big for you where you need Jesus to show up?
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Know today there are several take-aways such as, Satan offers us glory without suffering, but it ends up suffering without glory. When you find yourself defeated, turn to Him for victory and discover where you went wrong. Do not aim for human greatness; aim to be more like Jesus Christ. Do not measure yourself by other servants; measure yourself by Him. And, to experience Christ and all His Amazing Glory, we must deal drastically with sin as a surgeon because we gain by losing.

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