Devotion 11/12 - Mark 9:20-24

And they brought the boy to him.

And when the spirit saw him,

immediately it convulsed the boy,

and he fell on the ground and rolled about,

foaming at the mouth.

And Jesus asked his father,

“How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood.

And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him.

But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

And Jesus said to him,

“‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said,

“I believe; help my unbelief!”

Mark 9:20-24

 

Guest Devotion Writer – Pastor Nate Wolcott

 

I love the story of the halfway-believing father.  He comes to Jesus, not really sure if there’s any hope, but desperate to try Jesus out just in case he can free his son from bondage.  He says to Jesus, IF you can, and Jesus calls him on his lack of faith. 

 

“What do you mean IF?  I can do anything if you’d just believe!”

 

Here is where this story brings me much hope.  Our human expectation is for God to be offended that he (or us!) has not believed enough.  We expect God to leave in a huff and not do anything for us.  Sometimes we expect God to not do anything for us but to do something against us because we just aren’t believing hard enough.

 

God isn’t doing what I want.  I guess I’m not believing hard enough.  I’m not even going to bother praying about that, because I don’t believe God’s actually going to do anything about it.

 

There’s a tremendous problem with this mindset.  It makes faith a work. If I do this faith thing, God is bound to answer.  It’s about faking myself into believing something I don’t yet believe.  Friends, this is not the Gospel.  Notice how the father responds to Jesus, because he did it right: “I believe, help me in my unbelief!”

 

The father confesses belief in Jesus as being Lord, and confesses his struggle in trusting the implications of Jesus being Lord.  Essentially that man said to Jesus, I trust you, even though I can’t in my human frailty and grief see how you can do what my heart cries out for.

 

Heer’s the amazing fact this verse teaches: coming to Jesus in prayer is enough.  Even if we come doubting, as long as we are choosing to come to him it is enough. God didn’t require perfect faith from us.  The cross paid for that lack as well.

 

Do you have doubts about God’s ability to meet you at the point of your deepest hurts and needs?

 

Come as you are, but by all means COME.

 

For the King who

makes our faith strong,

Pastor Nate Wolcott