Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” ~ Mark 9:24
READING: Mark 9:14-27
An unnamed father had a son who was under the possession of an evil spirit which robbed his speech. He asked the disciples of the Lord to drive out the demon, but they could not. The teachers of the law began to argue with people in the gathered crowd.
Key subject matter in this passage is “unbelief.” Unbelief gripped the teachers of the law, the crowd, disciples and the father. Unbelief begins to take control at the time of uncertainty. The boy was under possession from his childhood. None could do anything, including the disciples of the Lord. Unbelief generates strong skepticism. “If you can . . .” was an echo of the heart of a skeptic father. They were the words uttered with unbelief in his heart.
When loss and failures hit us, we are abandoned, our prayers are unheard, injustice defeats us, sickness deteriorates and unsolved problems accumulate. When we think our labor in the Lord is in vain – there unbelief creeps in.
In 1984, I endured a gulf of severe challenges. I could sense unbelief was gripping me. I knew I was becoming a skeptic. It even almost had led me to break my commitments, made before the Lord. I spent a sleepless night with great wrestling between my belief and my unbelief. God shook me up from the bed and led me to the passage of this day’s meditation. All that I did in the middle of the night was just cry before the Lord as this unnamed father cried. Oh, Lord, I believe you but help me to get out of my unbelief.
There was an instant answer. Yes, I felt the cloud of unbelief passing away from my boundary. There was a divine injecting of “belief ” into me.
Help me, Lord, to believe you in all situations. Amen.
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