Mark 9:23-24
Overcoming Unbelief
23" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
24Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
Matthew 17:14-23
Overcoming Unbelief
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
The needing father asks Jesus to help him with his faith...Asking Jesus for help with our faith is not a bad thing, when and if you are in times of doubt...Faith is not easy...More faith and having and getting more faith is good...If faith were easy and an easy thing to do and hold onto, I think there would be more people who believed in our LORD...Doubt can creep into our lives in many ways...And once there doubt is there, it can grow...When doubt grows, we can drift from God and our belief...
It seems some people live their lives by this non-power of unbelief, instead of by the power of faith...If faith were so easy, Jesus' disciples would have been able to help the sick boy, and always lived with a strong faith...The disciples were taught directly by Jesus, the Great Teacher...And even though the Twelve Disciples were around Jesus constantly and were being taught by Him, Jesus says they could not heal the boy, because they had such little faith...The father asks for help with his little faith...This is a soothing story, in some respects for us with our mustard seed faith...A father has little faith, but he has not been around Jesus that much...The disciples have been around Him, and will be with Him for three years, and at times, they will lack faith...So we learn about faith, from different perspectives...Many of us have faith in God and His Son, but we drift and need help in overcoming our unbelief...We need to ask Jesus for His help in our doubts, and in overcoming our unbelief...It seems when we look at the Twelve Disciples they never have faith one hundred per cent of the time, and He is their Teacher...So, the best we may be able to do is faith most of the time, and then pray to the LORD, when we start lacking in faith...
Don't listen to people, who do not believe...This can have an impact on your faith...Read the Bible regular, and follow Jesus' teachings...Talk to the Father, and His Son and have a relationship with them...Remember, it is very hard, if not impossible, to keep our faith at one hundred per cent...And when things don't go as you want them to -be patient...All prayers are not answered immediately...And when you start doubting and unbelief creeps into your life, pray (like the father)...Pray that He will help you overcome your unbelief...