Lord, Help My Unbelief          by Darryl Manning 3-17-02 

There was a man in Mark 9 who came to Jesus with a desperate problem with his son.

¹⁷Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. ¹⁸And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid….²⁰Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.  ²¹So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²²And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Jesus speaks to the man words that were both encouraging and discouraging at the same time.

²³Jesus said to him, “If^£ you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” ²⁴Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

If you are in a desperate situation today you can very well identify with this man in Mark 9. Jesus gave him some wonderful words of encouragement: “All things are possible.”  But then the discouraging part, it would take faith to change the situation.

The man was honest enough to admit that he had some faith but he also had unbelief. The truth is that all of us struggle with unbelief. We have faith but also unbelief.

I told someone the other day that probably no one fully believes the word of God. Money is really a good test of what we really believe. Lets look at some examples that prove we do not fully believe God. Here is what Jesus said we should do with money.

Ø       Matt. 5: ⁴²Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Ø       Luke 6: ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Luke 6: ³⁸Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Ø       Matt. 19: ²¹Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Lets be honest today. Do you have faith to do any of these things Jesus commanded? Do you give to everyone who asks? Do you loan to everyone who wants to borrow from you? Do you allow thieves to take your possessions without trying to get them back?

If we really believed Luke 6:38 we would not always be picking the smallest bill out of our wallet when the offering was passed or when a needy person asked for help. If we really believed what Jesus said we would always be getting the biggest bill because we would know it would come back to us with interest.

Faith is not natural to us human beings. We tend to be plagued with unbelief. But I have good news today, God’s grace can conquer unbelief. When it comes to the promises of God we need more faith but we cannot get faith merely by will power. Faith only comes from God and that is given to us as a grace gift.

It is interesting to me that both St. Peter and St. Paul began every one of their letters commending God’s grace to the people of God. Every one starts with words similar to what we read in Romans 1:7

⁷To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now all of these people had already received a measure of God’s grace but St. Paul and St. Peter knew by experience that every Christian needs more grace.

St. Paul received God’s grace when stopped him on his way to kill more Christians and gave him faith to become a Christian. St. Paul received more grace that enabled him to become the greatest of all the apostles. Read what he said about this in 1 Cor. 15: 9-10

 ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Now I have great news for all of us who suffer with unbelief. God’s grace is greater than our unbelief. If we want to conquer unbelief we can only do it by receiving more of God’s grace.

One famous definition of grace is: “The unmerited favor of God.” This means that we cannot earn grace. Grace can only be given to us by a loving God.

Grace was given to the man in our Bible story. The man asked Jesus to “help” his unbelief. The scripture does not say what Jesus did in regard to the man’s unbelief but it does say that he healed the man’s son by casting the devil out of him. The man obtained “unmerited favor” that day.

²⁵When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” ²⁶Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

St. Peter along with St. Paul understood how important it was to receive the grace of God. In his letters he asks that “grace be multiplied” to his readers. After denying Jesus the night of the crucifixion, Peter learned how wonderful it was to obtain grace from God. Jesus forgave him and restored him as a leader among the disciples. In 1 Peter 5:5-6, St. Peter gives instruction on how to obtain grace from God.

…“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” ⁶Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

We need to quit playing “super Christian” and admit we are week in faith. Only then can God give us the grace we need. We must cast our cares upon the Lord with the knowledge that God does care for us and believe this: God will help us in spite of our unbelief.

In the Old Testament the story of Naaman illustrates how God gives grace to the undeserving. The story can be found in 2 Kings 5. Naaman was a general in the Syrian Army who contracted the dread disease of leprosy. He had a servant girl who told him about a prophet in Israel who could heal him. Naaman obtained permission from his king to go see the man of God in Israel.

Upon arriving at the Prophet Elisha’s home the Prophet’s servant came out and instructed Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed. Naaman was furious. He had expected the Prophet himself to “come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.” He did not want to wash in the dirty Jordan River and remarked to his servants that “the ^£Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?”

We can certainly see at this point that Naaman had no faith to obey the Prophet and be healed. But God gave him grace in the form of sound advice from his faithful servants. They basically said, “This is not such a hard thing to do. Why not at least try it and see if it works.”

Naaman humbled himself and accepted the advice of his servants and when he obeyed the Prophets directions was healed of his leprosy.

Friend, God is always ready to give grace to help us receive from him. It may come in the form of advice. It may come in the form of obeying an embarrassing instruction. But unbelief is conquered by the grace of God. I encourage you to ask God for grace today and everyday. Commend grace to others daily. Trust in the Lord to give you what you don’t deserve.