I BELIEVE, HELP MY UNBELIEF

¹⁷ A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

¹⁹ “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

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 one who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”

Many of us who were brought up in the Charismatic and Pentecostal stream of things have been taught a Christianity with an overtly unhealthy fixation on our faith. In the midst of all the good that came with believing that God actually still worked miracles; he still healed, he stilled provided financially and he still casts out demons, a little error crept in. We placed too much emphasis on how strong the individual’s belief is.  We are constantly reminded to be strong in faith. That we should not waver in our belief that this miracle or healing will happen. If it doesn’t happen, it simply means there is something wrong with us.

To me, this has built an unhealthy fixation on faith amongst Christians. We are more concerned with how much faith we display than in the goodness of God. It is a subtle reversal to the works mentality that is prevalent in most human religion and we allowed it to creep it in because we all love to boast about what we have done to earn the blessing. In this case, we have believed properly and unwaveringly.

Don’t get me wrong, I do agree that the belief and assent of the believer is key to living and enjoying the relationship with God. But I believe that Faith is a natural response to the goodness of God. We are not saved by Faith, we are saved by Grace. Faith is what happens when we find out what God has done for us. it is the hallelujah we scream when we think of the goodness of God to us through his Son. It is the smile on people’s faces, the feeling of relief and joy that I see in people when they dare to believe that God is actually better than they think.

Nevertheless, there is an ebb and flow with regards to our faith. Sometimes we believe strongly, other times the circumstances are so overwhelming, we forget that God is bigger than the challenge and he is actually on our side. When the rubber meets the road, there are times when we forget who we are; beloved children of the most high God.

This is where the beauty of the Gospel lies. It was never dependent on our faith. Our faith did not save us and it does not sustain us. Even in times when we are unsure and full of doubt, Jesus has no doubt. Consider the passage above, the man believed in Jesus enough to bring his son to Jesus for healing, but even then, he still had doubts. That did not stop Jesus from doing what he wanted to do. Because he is a healer, he is Love. The cry of the man for Jesus to help his unbelief is the cry of humanity. It is apt because that is exactly part of what Jesus does for us in his vicarious humanity. He takes our feeble attempts at faith, repentance, and worship and presents it alongside his perfect representation of these things before the Father. At the end of the day we are all people screaming “I believe, help my unbelief”

The result of this is simple, we do not need to examine the level of our faith (the epistles advise us to examine if we are still in the Faith and not to examine how strong our faith is) but to continually trust in the one who can perfect our faith, however big or small. We are also to trust that he is always on our side, even when we seem unsure, he will always help our unbelief. When you do that, your focus goes back to him and God sees you in your faith