I Believe...

In our bible class last night we reviewed my second most favorite (or meaningful to me) verse. It is contained in a narrative in Mark 9:14-30 where Jesus casts a demon out of a young boy. The father is challenged concerning his faith and his response in verse 24 was, “I believe, help thou my unbelief”, or “I do believe, but help me to have a stronger faith.”

One of the reasons this is one of my most favorite passages is that I can identify with those words more than you might suspect. You see, we tend to look at people and form an opinion about them and their faith from a very limited knowledge of them. You consider what you know of me, my ministries, our mission efforts and think, “Russ has it all together, I bet he never worries about anything.” Well, if that's way you think, you would be wrong. It may be true that my wife and I have faced some challenges which you have not. It may be true that we have undertaken works that you would rather not, but that doesn't mean that my faith is unshakable. That may or may not surprise you, but I believe that God places us where he wants us to be and perhaps those places are to challenge, test or strengthen our faith.

You will never know how many times I have prayed, “Lord, I believe, but help me have a stronger faith. Help me have a faith that trusts you more and that let's me give more control of my life to you”. “I believe, help thou my unbelief!”

What this passage lets me know is that I'm no different from anyone else. That each of us face Faith Challenges from time to time. You may be struggling with health issues, job issues, personal relationship issues or with faith issues. You maybe looking at this things and thinking, “There is no way I can deal with this by myself.” If you are, then you also identify with that father of 2,000 years ago about who we read, “Straight away the father of the child gave a cry, saying, I have faith; make my feeble faith stronger.” (BBE) Is it time for you to consider your faith and perhaps give up some control, or as they say, “Let go and let God.”