Unbelief

Heroes of the faith are found everywhere in the pages of the Bible. I can’t wait to meet them someday. But there is one hero of mine who many would fail to include with the likes of Mary (the mother of Jesus), or Daniel, or Job. And he may be tougher to find than most in the heavenly realm. That’s because his name isn’t documented in any of my versions of the Bible. I only know he is a father, looking for help for his son. He is at his wit’s end with finding a cure for his demon-possessed boy. He’s emotional from all the pain and anguish. He is tired from long days and sleepless nights. He has watched his son be tormented day and night by a demon that wants to end the boy’s life. The father and son have fought this devil for who knows how long. And now he stands before Jesus and casts all his cares onto Him and pleads for help. His tears flow freely before the only one who can bring relief.

And yet he also suffers from the same affliction as I do—and maybe many of you too. The seed of unbelief is in his mind and in his heart. Oh sure, it isn’t a sizeable seed. In fact, his belief in the healing power of Jesus is not overshadowed by his level of doubt at all. But there is enough in him that Jesus feels the need to question his confidence. Maybe Jesus felt a little perturbed at the word “if” thrown at him by the boy’s father. In Mark 9:22, the dad states, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (NIV). If. If. Did you catch it? If you read too fast, you’ll miss it. It leaves an ugly taste in the mouth when you say it slowly and put emphasis on the word, doesn’t it? But if you can do anything, take pity on us. When you pray, do you ever say “if” to God? Do you ask Jesus “if” you can do this or do that? Don’t you think it hurts Him today, just as it did in Mark 9? That’s doubt. Let’s wipe that word from our prayer vocabulary and never bring it up again, shall we?

Have you ever had anyone question your ability to your face? It probably left you a little miffed, right? Nah, it left you downright upset! You shot past “mad” like the speed of light. You went straight into uncontrollably irritated and wildly angry. You thought, How dare you question what I can or can’t do? And to my face? And in front of all these other people too! You’ve obviously never seen me in action! Well, Jesus had every right to react like that. He could have stomped away indignantly and left the father there to spend the rest of his days fighting the monster inside his son. But He has way too much love and forgiveness flowing through His veins to do that. He simply replies, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” He makes it sound so simple. Piece of cake! Just believe! He gives us the recipe; we just have to follow it.

Lucky for the father and his son, they had enough faith to ask Jesus for a miracle. And in the end, it paid off. The spirit was removed from the boy, and Jesus made him well. All the years of suffering were finally over. Relief was finally theirs. Can you imagine their excitement? The father’s unbelief was overcome by the miraculous love and power of Christ. Jesus didn’t have to heal him. He didn’t have to heal anybody. But He did it out of love. He’ll do the same for us. If we just … believe.

Do you ever feel like that father? You have enough faith to ask, but do you have enough to believe? We communicate with God, and in the midst of our prayers, we believe they could be answered in an instant. Our petitions are fervent and steadfast. But no sooner do we say amen than the doubt sets in. The shadows of unbelief gather around us once again. The fear that we’ll never see those prayer requests come to fruition haunts us every time. Maybe some of us are strong enough to give it an entire day or two before the doubt takes over. We foolishly want God to work on our timetable, not His. And before we know it, we’re back to square one. It’s like we never even prayed at all. And God has to wonder where our faith in Him went. Our confidence yields to our hesitation.

I don’t think for a second that Jesus would have turned this child away from being made whole again. But perhaps the acknowledgement of unbelief from the boy’s father brought Jesus to a quicker decision to exhibit the power of God through this healing. The admission of doubt may have been a thousand times more persuasive than a common apology for that whole “if” catastrophe a few verses before. Perhaps when he “got real” with Jesus, things changed for the better for him. Notice the dad didn’t put up a front and act like his son deserved the healing after all they had been through. Neither did he act belligerent and demand that Jesus cast out the demon or else he would attempt to give our Lord a knuckle sandwich. He was open and honest with his Lord. He was submissive. Don’t we need to do the same? Are we too arrogant in our faith to ever consider a speck of doubt in our walk with Him? Perhaps we need to acknowledge our unbelief to our Father.