Lord I Believe, Help My Unbelief!

 Mark 9:14-32 

A Boy Is Healed

14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15 Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16 And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?"

17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."

19 He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me." 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

21 So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?"

And he said, "From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

23 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!" 26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead." 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"

29 So He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

Jesus Again Predicts His Death and Resurrection

30 Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. 31 For He taught His disciples and said to them, "The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day." 32 But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him.

Faith for Jesus to make us whole in body and soul and for a resurrection into the kingdom of heaven are necessary to follow our Lord according to these accounts.  The healing of the body was only a shadow of the wholeness that the gospel promises; what was essential in the message of Jesus Christ was the trust in His work to do this and not our own (John 6:28-29).  This requires us to believe Him, to read the scripture with discernment and then to take Him at His word and then act upon it.  This is what He was talking to them about when saying, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”  This certainly is not a demand out of context of God’s word and revealed will, but a request for His will to work with our complete trust that Father knows best and will answer and work according to His counsel and not our brash demands as the Lord tells us in 1 John 5:14-15 and 1 John 3:21-23 to do and expect.  Our answer in times of doubt of the out should then echo the child’s father here to ask God help our unbelief or doubts as we set our face like a flint (Isaiah 50:7) to believe and trust according to the principles of scripture and the leading according to them by his Spirit living within us.  We do not blindly name whatever we desire and claim it to force God to comply with our demands.  He gives us the desires of our hearts as His desires placed in us and not we conjuring up what we desire apart from Him as it is written in Psalm 37:4-5 which explain in context that God gives us His desires as we immerse ourselves in His word and will to be able to see those desires well up in us as we delight in Him and not in our own selfish desires of our own creation.  We cannot trust the desires of our own hearts because they are full of evil (Jeremiah 17:9) and selfishness as broken in the fall of man.  Thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ for His Spirit and word to guide us to think and act and ask according to the scriptures as we persist in prayer (Matthew 7:7-8)!  Prayer and fasting are often required in difficult situations therefore.  Jesus also goes on in this section of scripture in verses 30-32 to teach His disciples about the resurrection which He is leading up to after His suffering and death on a cross.  This is the ultimate answer to our sin and the hope of a sinless life after death that is the reward of faith in the gospel, for we shall also be raised in this same manner in new incorruptibility of body and soul as 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 (1 Corinthians 15:42, 44, 49) says to us as an absolute and certain promise of hope beyond the grave.  When we waver with doubt of eternal life after death, we need to trust His word and the inner assurance of His Spirit in us that confirms this truth.  Like the man’s faith for physical healing of his possessed child, we ask for help when doubts arise and then go on in the assurance of faith confirmed by His trustworthy word to us.  Lord I believe, help my unbelieving doubts!  This inspires us all to say, “ Lord I Believe, Help My Unbelief!” when we face difficulties in our prayers, beliefs, and decisions for living to please our Lord.