Help My Unbelief

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭9:24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

There’s a great scene in the Christian sports movie Facing the Giants about unbelief. The coach is talking to his team about their next opponent and the players don’t think they can win. The coach leads one of the players through a grueling blindfolded death crawl to prove to him that all he has to do is overcome that fear and unbelief to achieve his goal. The coach had asked the player if he could crawl 50 yards with someone on his back, and the player insisted he wasn’t able to. But while the player was supposed to only crawl 50 yards, the coach leads him in going the entire 100 yards. It’s an inspiring scene. (*I placed the link below.)

I’m reminded of the account in Mark when a father wanted his son healed of demon-possession. The disciples had tried and failed to help him, so Jesus intervened. Jesus told the father all he had to do was believe. I love the father’s response: “I believe; help my unbelief!” It’s such a genuine moment that we’ve all experienced. We believe God is able, but sometimes we put our own limits on Him because of our fear and doubt. Even when the disciples were unable to heal the boy, Jesus called them faithless. As Jesus told the boy’s father, all things are possible if we believe in Him. However, just as the folks in Nazareth when Jesus came through, we can limit what happens in our lives if we harbor unbelief (see Matt. 13:58). So whatever you’re believing God for – healing, restoration, deliverance, etc. – don’t put the 50-yard limit on Him. As the kids would say, keep it 100 with your faith in God. And watch Him change things because you fully believed He could.