I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!
Faith is not an easy thing.
Yeah, I know folks who seem to never have any problems in the area of faith. For them it is easy to say, "God said it, I believe it, and that settles that."
Not me.
I mean, I believe but I don't. Recently, it has been hard to believe.
Mark 9:14-29 is troubling and soothing at the same time. A father brings his son to Jesus for healing. The boy has an evil spirit in him. The spirit causes the boy to have what sounds like an epileptic having seizures. Except added to that the boy cannot speak because of the spirit. The disciples have already tried to drive it out but are not successful.
So the father tells Jesus, "..if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
Jesus says, "Everything is possible for him who believes."
The father responds, "I do believe: help me overcome my unbelief!"
Jesus then drives the spirit out.
The story is soothing to me because at my core I believe. Deep down there, wherever that is, I believe in God. But sometimes, many times, I don't. Something gets a hold of me and that certainty slips from me.
And that doubt, it usually starts so small I barely notice it. Before long it has snowballed into something big.
The story troubles me because of the evil spirit thing. I mean, does anyone else have a hard time believing in evil spirits? No? Just me?
I know some commentators say yes, it really was an evil spirit. Others say no, that was their limited understanding of epilepsy. And why couldn't the disciples make a dent? I don't know.
I read it. I believe it. I just need help with my unbelief.
I think faith, by definition, can never be 100%. I can never have total faith in God and this story without some doubt. It requires belief and unbelief at the same time. I don't really like that. I want to know it and prove it and check it off my list.
So what is the answer?
The end of that story has Jesus explaining why the disciples weren't effective.
Jesus tells them, "This kind can come out only by prayer."
My cynical nature responds with, "Yeah, right!" But then I think, what if there is something to that? Is that where the real power is? Can prayer do anything? Can it drive out my evil spirit of unbelief?
I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!
Yeah, I know folks who seem to never have any problems in the area of faith. For them it is easy to say, "God said it, I believe it, and that settles that."
Not me.
I mean, I believe but I don't. Recently, it has been hard to believe.
Mark 9:14-29 is troubling and soothing at the same time. A father brings his son to Jesus for healing. The boy has an evil spirit in him. The spirit causes the boy to have what sounds like an epileptic having seizures. Except added to that the boy cannot speak because of the spirit. The disciples have already tried to drive it out but are not successful.
So the father tells Jesus, "..if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
Jesus says, "Everything is possible for him who believes."
The father responds, "I do believe: help me overcome my unbelief!"
Jesus then drives the spirit out.
The story is soothing to me because at my core I believe. Deep down there, wherever that is, I believe in God. But sometimes, many times, I don't. Something gets a hold of me and that certainty slips from me.
And that doubt, it usually starts so small I barely notice it. Before long it has snowballed into something big.
The story troubles me because of the evil spirit thing. I mean, does anyone else have a hard time believing in evil spirits? No? Just me?
I know some commentators say yes, it really was an evil spirit. Others say no, that was their limited understanding of epilepsy. And why couldn't the disciples make a dent? I don't know.
I read it. I believe it. I just need help with my unbelief.
I think faith, by definition, can never be 100%. I can never have total faith in God and this story without some doubt. It requires belief and unbelief at the same time. I don't really like that. I want to know it and prove it and check it off my list.
So what is the answer?
The end of that story has Jesus explaining why the disciples weren't effective.
Jesus tells them, "This kind can come out only by prayer."
My cynical nature responds with, "Yeah, right!" But then I think, what if there is something to that? Is that where the real power is? Can prayer do anything? Can it drive out my evil spirit of unbelief?
I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!
posted by Bart at 12:01 AM
10 Comments:
Amen, brother.
I have a couple thoughts about that demon, but the real point is the unbelief in us. One of the versions says, "fasting and prayer." It really seems like prayer is weak toward the things of this world, but it sure is strong toward the things of God, and the things of the heart.
I come back to this passage often, with the same questions you ask. Thanks for sharing!
great post...i think you might benefit from reading tillich. I read his dynamics of faith and it supports doubt, because doubt reveals just how important we take our faith.
I too, have to ask for faith to believe. this idea really helped me b/c deep down i believe, my faith is ultimately important, but i doubt.
It is amazing the strength I've been able to draw around me from people who have responded, either publicly or by email, to this post.
codepoke - I would love to hear you thoughts about that demon.
joebum - Thanks for the suggestion. His book on faith looks interesting.
Bart said "Faith is not an easy thing."
You're right my friend. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. Heck, I might even be doing it. At least, better. For me the most refreshing reminder is to be near someone as s/he believes and starts to have faith. It's like "oh ya, faith is real."
"Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith." -My Preacher quoting somebody smart who's name I should remember.
-David
The opposite of Faith is certainty.
Hi Just a couple of thoughts. Firstly, what is faith? I was on the Freedom in Christ Course and the speaker tells of two definitions of faith.
1. Faith is trying very hard to believe something that is not true.
2. Faith is believing the truth.
Definition 1 is the one I had worked with for a long time. But now I know that faith is believing what is true and real.
In the story the disciples had already dealt with demons before but they did not believe. Jesus talks about unbelieving generation. What I believe He meant was people who would easily abandon God and that was a trait of Israel throughout their history. So deep down they would easily abandon God.
There are times when I have had to really wrestle with the truths in the Bible before they get to the core of my being. On a recent Freedom in Christ course it took participants a couple of weeks to accept what was being said.
So I would say that we pray for faith that at the core of our being we will not abandon God.
With regard to demons I think that there is good critical and historical evidence of spiritual beings. On the Alpha course Nicky Gumble does some good work on it and lays a good foundation for understanding this area.
I hope you find this helpful
Hi there!
I have come to a very similar conclusion. I also have trouble with my faith and doubt. I have been a Christian for 3 years now and God has certainly worked wonders in my life, yet I still regularly slip into unbelief.
I am a PhD educated scientist and surrounded by secular athiests. I too wanted to "figure God out", "check God off my list" etc... as that's how my mind works. That's how I've solved every problem in my life!
But it hit me the other week. I thought I'd have this Christianity thing cracked in no time, as everything else I ever learned I learned quickly. Yet I am progressing more slowly than average I think. Its because Im trying to figure God out. Its because Im trying to rationalise my belief rather than taking Him at His word. God once whispered to me "Andrew, what are you doing? You can't figure me out!" How foolish that I should think my finite mind could comprehend the infinite.
I was greatly encouraged by "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God", by the diciples continued skeptcism (e.g. Thomas, James). Yes we must lay down our pride and pray and read the Word. This is the source and will greatly strengthen our faith. It goes against every grain of my worldly upbringing, but its a promise of God and it works.
God bless you my friend!
AndyB / Manchester UK.
Sorry to double post on your blog, but I should also say CS Lewis has a very good definition of faith. He says:
"Faith is continuing to believe that which you know to be true in spite of" and then he lists the things which cause faith to fade. None of them are "lack of evidence", they are all things like the mundaneness of everyday life, a hard day at work etc...
The example he gives is when something incredible happens in your life, lets say you see an elephant walking down the street one day, years later you may doubt you ever saw it. It was rather incredible after all.
Prayerfully cast your mind back to before you believed and the time when you first became a Christian. God will remind you by His spirit all the wonders He has done for you!
AndyB.
andyB1979 [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
I've seen the spiritual realm so believe buddy believe I know the reason why Sometimes I get that spirit its cuz I used to be friends with Atheist.
I'm sorry I'm coming along almost 2 years after your original post, but I hope that some things that the Lord has revealed to me may help you and others who read this and sometimes despair that faith seems so far away.
First off, I think that you will find EVERY Christian at one time or another has experienced a severe lack of faith. I can't say I've ever found a Christian who hasn't. I would surmise that those you have seen that appear to not have any problems with faith have A) went through severe trials, where there faith was the only thing that stood them up, or B) are exhibiting a bit of braggadocio which is not a good idea...you words always come back to bite you.
Jesus felt exasperation that we so often failed to see what was right before our eyes. He was right. Even when we are surrounded with blessings galore, we ignore them like gnats buzzing around our feet...and harp on the seemingly insurmountable problems which really are gnats to God.
Yet, this was Gods design. We were given the freedom of choice. If God made Himself a 'certainty', how could we choose Him? God wants us because we seek Him, not because we can't help but know He is there.
Yet He reveals Himself to us as our faith grows. Our walk grows closer as we choose to walk with Him, despite what may seem like thousands of reasons why we shouldn't. He opens Himself up to us as we take steps to improve our faith and our walk with Him.
But we must work to do that. Satan knows that as faithful Christians, we are powerful and we can defeat him with our resistance. If we are weak, we are no threat...he can easily sweep us away like spiderwebs. Faith is an element of our armament against Satan, the Shield of Faith deflects all the flaming darts that Satan casts against us.
Like you, I have also found great comfort in this passage. It shows me that I can ask God for the most simple of requests...help me with my faith! And because God IS faithful, he will do so.
So what can we do when our faith is flagging? Strangely enough, I have found that the quickest way to regain faith is to ask for forgiveness for my unbelief and other sins (something we should always do as our prayers to him), and begin to sing praises to God, just as Peter did in jail. When the praises begin to rise to Heaven, its amazing how the faith rains down.
And obviously as you've just shown, reading the living Word restores our faith. It reminds us that God has always been faithful, and that His love is ever unfailing, no matter how unfaithful we may be to Him.
As to your last comment about the demon, I guess since I'm not familiar with your beliefs, I'm going to guess that you don't believe in demons?
Peter says we are at war with the unseen, therefore demons and Satan are all part of our faith. If we don't believe that Jesus knew demons by name and could cast them out, isn't that by definition a lack of faith? Demons know, just as Satan does, that if you were to confront a real being of darkness, that it would therefore confirm that there is a God in Heaven? Your unbelief in demons is an element in Satan's war against you, as if he can persuade you to doubt that demons exist, it give him ammo to shoot holes in your faith.
Yet as we hope to confirm our faith in Jesus, all the demons *know* Him by name and tremble. And they continue to endeavor to persuade you that they don't exist, because if you really did *know*...your faith that what Jesus did was true would be restored.
Love you, brothers and sisters.
Amen!
KnightCross
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