“Help my unbelief.”
February 04, 2021
"I believe; help my unbelief!" (See the text in Mark 9:14-29)
Here is the key to the lesson Jesus is teaching His disciples when they asked why they could not help the man and his boy. After all, they believed and Jesus had said that all things were possible to those who believed.
But the man did more than just believe.
He believed and prayed.
Jesus said that deliverance from the oppressing demon that tormented the boy required prayer. Some manuscripts include, “and fasting.”
Prayer requires belief, but in this case, belief is verified and amplified through prayer. After all, the man declares, in His prayer to Jesus, that he does indeed believe, but he doubts the power of his own, weak, feeble, capacity to believe. He is honest, but he is also desperate.
His trust is like the one who believes enough to jump into the darkness even though he is still trembling with shades of uncertainty.
What took his belief beyond its own ability to believe was the declaration, “I believe,” followed by the prayer, “Help my unbelief.”