Mark 9:21-24
On Increasing our Weak Faith
21 Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
"From childhood," he answered. 22 "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
23 " 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
24 Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
Some days, if not many days, I have faith that is at the bottom of the ladder...I do try to seek God and read and write about Him daily, but many days He remains hidden to me...And the longer He remains hidden, the weaken and lower on the ladder my faith is...It would be nice to have the faith of the centurion, or the blind beggar, or the Canaanite mother who persisted in asking Jesus to heal her daughter...But I must confess, I do not...My faith I believe is the size of the mustard seed and is shakable and sometimes is filtered with doubt...
Philip Yancey writes about strong faith and weak faith...“Reading all the healing stories together, I now detect in the Gospels a kind of “ladder of faith.”...At the top of the ladder stand those people who impressed Jesus with bold, unshakable faith: a centurion, an impertinent blind beggar, a persistent Canaanite woman...These stories of gristly faith threaten me, because seldom do I have such faith...I am easily discouraged by the silence of God...When my prayers are not answered, I am tempted to give up and not ask again...For this reason, I look down the ladder to find people of lesser faith, and it heartens me to learn that Jesus seemed willing to work with whatever tiny glimmer of faith came to light...I cling to the tender accounts of how Jesus treated the disciples who forsook and then doubted Him...The same Jesus who praised the bold faith of those high up the ladder also gently quickened the flagging faith of his disciples.”...
It is good to read that St. Paul thought those who were strong in faith work with the weak...So St. Paul writes that the people who are confident of their salvation in Christ need to be tolerant of the doctrinal mistakes that others have...Their faith is already weak; we should not challenge them more than they can bear...Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up...He tells us that our LORD Jesus is the example we need to follow...
Let us have gratitude that Jesus treated His Disciples when the doubted and denied Him...When St. Thomas doubted Jesus, he in the end called Jesus, his LORD and his God...And St. Peter who denied his LORD three times one night, tells us later that salvation is found only in the name of Jesus...
Because of these things one of my favorite verses is I do believe but help me overcome me my unbelief...