Mark 9:24
"Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!""
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This past weekend, we traveled to Ohio for Faith to tour the University of Akron and to spend time with our families there. It was a great weekend of watching the nephews play football, hanging out with family and also worshiping together on Sunday. Linda asked me to sing at her church and God laid on my heart to sing "Give Me Jesus" by Fernando Ortega. Through our trials this year, God has retaught me that I cannot solve all our problems, and that I need to turn every part of my life over to Jesus. Simply put, Jesus is all we need.
The passage today was one of the scriptures that the Pastor used in his Sermon. His message was on a broader theme, but I as read these verses from Mark again today, I was reminded about how we all struggle with unbelief sometimes. This world we live in bombards us with so much that is against our faith. We are continually told to put our faith and our trust in so many other things. But we know that there is only One that will always come through for us and will always be there for us.
So, why do we let unbelief creep into our lives sometimes? Well first, I don't think we should be too hard on ourselves. The disciples (who literally walked with Jesus) also had unbelief. In Matt 17:14-21 Jesus explains that they could not heal an epileptic boy "because of their unbelief". So, we should not feel less of a Christian if we have bouts of unbelief. And we should more often share our doubts with other believers and allow God to speak through his body to grow our faith (you can always send me emails or call with any doubts you want to share!). Ultimately, I do think the primary reason that Satan gets a foothold of unbelief in our lives is because we are not continually hearing God's word and we are not spending enough time in relationship and conversation with Jesus.
So, yes we need to cry out to our Lord and ask for him to help us in our unbelief. But we also need to help ourselves by studying, praying, fasting, fellowshiping with others believers, and communing with our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll close today with a song lyric by Alison Krauss from "A Living Prayer" (full song linked below). In the song, she says "In Your love, I find release, a haven from my unbelief". Remember that Jesus is your haven from anything that will attack you from this world. Seek Him always!
...and don't forget to love God with all your heart, love others as He does, and use every minute for His will and to His glory!
"A Living Prayer" - Alison Krauss
http://youtu.be/5gmVzbjxwl4
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