Help My Unbelief

Got this revelation about the story of Jesus healing a boy with evil spirit.

In this account of his healing, Jesus had just came down from the mountain where He and His 3 beloved disciples, Peter, James and John, had spent the night. They had the privilege of witnessing Jesus' transfiguration, but commanded by Jesus not to tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man is risen from the dead -- because He knew He was about to go up to the cross, and that this vision would be an evidence or testimony the He is truly sent by the Father, and that He is the Son of God.

Now, as soon as they came down from the mountain and met with the other disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and the scribes disputing with them. (Mark 9:14) A man came to Him, begging Him saying, "Lord have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him." (Matthew 17:15-16) Mark recorded it as "... So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it [the evil spirit] out, but they could not."

This father must have been very desperate for his son to be healed of the evil spirit. He knows very well that it was an evil spirit that caused his son to be epileptic, falling into fire and water, so he searched for the right solution -- the spiritual solution -- and he came to the right people. But to His disappointment, Jesus' disciples couldn't cast out the demon. Perhaps they have tried all night, using all kinds of ways, but they still couldn't help this boy.

And being desperate, as soon as the father saw Jesus arrive, he came to Him and related the night's incident to Him. Perhaps what he was saying was this, "Jesus, thank goodness You are here now. You see, my son is demon-possessed, and I guess only You alone can help me, because even Your disciples can't cast it out." And maybe he had this slight hint of complaining that His disciples were a useless bunch. But he couldn't offend the Lord, so he tried to relate what happened in an objective manner.

But Jesus 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."

Talk about WOW! Was Jesus talking about the father being faithless, or the disciples? Or both? Perhaps it was both. The father didn't have faith that the disciples could heal his boy, nor did the disciples had faith that the boy would be healed through them.

Then the father said, "But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." (Mark 9:22b) Did he know that Jesus can do EVERYTHING? Why then did he said ANYTHING? Obviously, he was desperately begging Jesus for help.

Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:23-24)

The father was so desperate for something to happen that his level of faith had begun to decrease, and there was a mixture of faith and unbelief in his heart.

Sometimes that can happen to us. We are so desperate for something to happen, for a change, for a prayer to be answered, for God to show up, that our faith dwindles and we don't know if there was any basis for our hope. We are so desperate for God to answer us that it seemed like God was late. And suddenly we become confused. Should I really do this? Is this the will of God for me? Am I praying correctly?

Friends, let me tell you that if you're not praying stuff against God's nature and against what the Bible says, there's no such thing as a 'wrong prayer'. The father of the boy could have asked, "is it God's will for my son to be heal?" The answer is "of course!" Is it God's will for you to see your family members saved, see you living in prosperity, good career development, living in overflowing blessing? OF COURSE!

How do you keep on believing when what you have asked for is not yet here? Keep looking at faith (Jesus), keep hearing Him saying to you "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." He has already given us the remedy to help your unbelief.

Verse to Remember:
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Christ) -- Romans 10:17