Help My Unbelief

Mark 9:21-27

Introduction of self - ask for people to comment where they are from

Begin with prayer and tell of background of passage - there was a boy possessed with a demon that the disciples were unable to cast out and this boy is brought before Jesus.

reading of Scripture

I want to focus on the father of the child’s response. He first states “if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” to which Jesus replies, “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!” The cry of the father’s heart!

This has been the cry of my heart for the last year. I have had moments of doubt where I cry out to God as well saying if you can do anything have compassion on me and my family. Where Jesus at times has gently reminded me and other times where He has been in my face and said the same words If you can? All things are possible for one who believes. I have cried out more times than I can remember this last year “I believe, help my unbelief”.

When it comes to revival of our hearts and our spirit I believe that first requires for us to be real with God, for us to acknowledge our places of doubt and to confess the truth of our hearts to Him. My pastor recently preached that doubt in and of itself is not a sin. It is what we do with that doubt that can lead to sin. We have to be honest with ourselves and with God, really honest about where we are at. Have you taken time recently to sit in the stillness and actually allow yourself to be honest with yourself and God? I know how difficult this can be and how painful but it is in this time of true confession and acknowledgement to the One who sees all that healing can really begin. We can’t pretend or wear the mask when it comes to being honest with God. We will never grow in our relationship with Him if we can’t be honest with Him. Do you truly believe that all things are possible for the one who believes? Jesus said it so it must be true. It is in this passage of scripture where Jesus is reaching down deep into the father’s heart and because the father is honest Jesus responds and moves even in the father’s lack of belief.

It is here where we need to cry out as David did in Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

To be lead in the way of everlasting we have to allow God to search our heart, to know our very thoughts, the things that no one else sees or hears that we keep hidden. We need to allow God to get into those secret places and to work in them, to move in them, to change what needs to be changed, especially our unbelief. God has revealed His power to me in the last couple of months in ways I cannot even verbalize. As in the story we read with the father and son, I feel as if I lived something so similar as a mom with my daughter. My daughter went into a very dark place and I kept crying out to God and once I truly released her to His care and let go because there was no where else I could turn to, He began to work in her heart and deliver her. He worked in a place of my unbelief and through that confession of unbelief in my own heart He moved. I remember many times where I would argue with myself and God saying I know you can heal her but there was a place deep down where I doubted this truth. Once I confessed that God moved. My daughter is now free from that darkness and she is in the best place she has ever been physically, emotionally and spiritually.

It is through the dark valley that we were in that the Lord lit a new fire in our hearts. My daughter is growing leaps and bounds in her walk with Jesus. And I am as well. I am able to hear the Lord again as the walls are being broken down and the dead places are being brought back to life! Praise the Lord!

So now the Lord, in doing a new work has led me to a new place. A place of being strong and courageous. A place of fortitude where I now need to have courage in a time of pain and adversity. I don’t have time today to share my full story but I have been surrounded the last year in nothing but pain and adversity and the Lord is now calling me to have courage during these times. I have been reading and studying the book of Joshua recently and the common phrase in the beginning of Joshua is “be strong and courageous”. And how can we be strong and courageous? By believing that “the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9. But this also calls for obedience on our part. Joshua was told in chapter 1:6-7, “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” This was true for the days of Joshua and it is true for us today, except now we have the Savior, Jesus Christ who died for our sins to deliver us from death and give us everlasting life. He gave us a helper, the Holy Spirit to live within us to help us and to guide us, but we still must meditate on God’s word every day so that we can hear from the Lord and not be misguided by the voices of this world. If we really want revival for ourselves and for those around us, we need to live in truth, the truth of God’s Word and we can’t do that if we are never in it. Do we want to have good success wherever we go? I’m not talking about having an easy life of no problems, that is not promised to us, I’m talking about having the victory in Christ. We have to come to the realization that all that is going on around us, really has nothing to do with us but everything to do with the battle that is going on around us for the souls of this world. Satan and God are battling right now, the stage has been set. If we are truly in God’s word we know this to be true, but we also know the outcome of this truth. Are we going to live in a way where we are letting Satan hold us back or live in the victory of Christ where we are going to allow Him to grow us, stretch us, and train us to be on the battlefield, ready to fight alongside Him so that others can be saved? I want to be on the side of Jesus because in the end I know God wins! We will have victory! It goes back to the beginning of my message, do you believe? Do you need help with your unbelief? Be truthful with yourself and with God and allow Him to do the work within you and around you to help build up that belief. Our strength belongs to the Lord. So as I am strong and courageous I know I can only do this by surrendering to God and allowing Him to do the work in me. Are you ready to join me, to join God in this battle? Lay yourself before the One who can do all things and let Him be your strength.