LEARNING DAILY

Mark 9:24, Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief!”

Today you need to read the entire passage this verse comes from, Mark 9:14-29. Jesus and a few of His disciples were coming down from the place Jesus had been transfigured. When Jesus came to the disciples and a great multitude, He found them in a discussion about one’s son who had an issue; the disciples could not cast out of the boy, the evil spirit causing the problem. It is obvious that the father was greatly distressed and wanted help. As soon as Jesus appeared, the father went right to Him for a solution that the disciples could not provide. Jesus told the father that his son could be healed if he believes. As you read in the verse above, the father shows his weakness by his statement that he believes; but he puts that belief a long side of his doubt.

Jesus sees the problem right away by the statement He makes, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I be with you? Bring him to me.” In Matthew 17:17, Jesus calls those who were there a, “faithless and perverse generation”. Who knows how many miracles of healing, the casting out of evil spirits that they had seen Jesus do. They had seen the works of God but still did not believe and the indication is He was very disappointed in them. Jesus is telling the disciples that their doubts caused them to be unable to cast out the evil spirit. Could their doubts have been passed on to the father?

The father’s words to Jesus were really a prayer, a simple but really great prayer. It is a prayer that places his dependence totally on Jesus, acknowledging that without Him, he could not believe the way he needed to believe. The father had just a little faith – mustard seed size faith of Matthew 17:20 – and it was enough faith to heal his son.

The disciples came to Jesus later and wanted to know why they could not heal this boy and Jesus told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting”. Spending time in prayer is a very important part of spiritual warfare and is a weapon always available to every Believer. Fasting helps us to get out of our prideful selves and become more dependent on the Lord in every situation. “Pray without ceasing” (Ephesians 6:18) helps us to be ready for each situation we face because it helps us fight spiritual enemies and battles in God’s strength and not on our own. In prayer, we ask God for His strength, His mercy and to ask for whatever we need as we battle spiritual forces. Doing so on our own results in failures.

Nothing is known about the father. What we do know needs to be applied to the life of every Believer. He may not have understood much about the theology of Jesus’ power and authority, but he trusted Jesus, his son was healed. Walking on the narrow way with Jesus is a matter of faith. One showing up to church on Sunday, does not mean one trusts God enough to direct his/her walk the rest of the week. A Believer’s walk can be strengthened, just like the father in this example. It is just about a guarantee in life that there will be times of doubt in a Believer’s walk on the narrow way. What do you do? You put whatever faith you have in the hands of the One who is the true source of your faith. The father did not create greater faith by his own will power or by trusting in His own abilities to change his heart. Instead, he gave his heart to Jesus and asked Him to strengthen the faith he had. The way to strengthen weak or little faith is to fix our eyes on Jesus and remember that when we do, He can take even faith the size of a mustard seed and move mountains.

“Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief!”