Mark 9:24 KJV And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
The news of the healing power of Jesus starts in Mark chapter 1 and goes until Mark chapter 10. In Mark 6:7-12, Jesus gives His disciples power to heal and cast out unclean spirits, demons, as well. All this attracts crowds of people who need to be healed. We will look at this in Mark chapter 9.
This was a busy day for Peter, James, and John. They were on top of the mountain with Jesus witnessing unbelievable things. The rest of the disciples are at the bottom of the mountain surrounded by a crowd of people including scribes, experts in the law, who want to argue with them about what Jesus is saying and doing. We will look at what happens when Jesus comes down from the mountain.
Mark 9:15-27 is the story of the man who cries, I believe but help my unbelief.
Jesus Shows Them Their Unbelief
When the crowd sees Jesus they run to Him and surround Him. He asks the disciples what they were arguing over but out of the crowd a man speaks up. He tells Jesus he had brought his son to Him, but since He wasn’t there he took his son to the disciples and explained what was wrong. But the disciples could not help him. Jesus calls them all an “unbelieving generation.” He tells the man to bring his son to Him.
Now, before you get to critical, we all have times in our own lives when we believe God can, but we struggle to believe He will. Like this father who has watched his son suffer for many years, we have prayed, begged, cried, and or gone silent ourselves because it seems like God is not listening.
The Father
Jesus is helping the father and us. He is giving a lesson o n faithfulness. Yes, like the father we have faith but do we have faithfulness. That is committed and loyal to the One we say we have faith in.
Learn more about faith with our bible study on Standing In The Faith Of God.
The man brings the boy to Jesus and as soon as the boy sees Jesus the unclean spirit begins to torment the boy. Now, while the child is rolling around on the ground and foaming at the mouth Jesus ask questions. While Jesus is getting history on the boy’s health the boy is being attacked. The dad is like, If You can do something would You please have mercy on us and help us. What a scene that must have been and how agonizing for the dad. Here comes the lesson,
All Things Are Possible With God
Mark 9:23 KJV Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
All through scripture, Jesus says over and over your faith has healed you. Mark 5:34, Luke 17:19, and Luke 18:42 are just a few.
Jesus is saying, you believe but are you faithful to Me. Do you believe in Me as in Who I am. Is our faith rock solid or has it gone mushy?
I have witnessed the supernatural power of God. Like the disciples faith is easy on the mountain top. But like the disciples when they came down to the valley filled with sin, doubt, suffering, and sorrow, the fight is on. We live most of our Christian life in the valley with the sinners, which we once were, where the air is not clean, the people are up close and personal, having to get our hands dirty so to speak, and the sorrows are all consuming.
We Are Called To Be Holy
As Christians we are called to be holy in an unholy and intolerant world and that is going to cause us much grief. If we do not keep our eyes on our inheritance in heaven we will falter. We must ask ourself am I leaning on my own understanding? When I say I have faith am I saying I believe (trust in, have confidence in, rely on, lean on fully) the name of Jesus the Christ. If not, cry out like the father, Jesus, help me in my unbelief.
1 Peter 2:1 KJV Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Once we have tasted the goodness of the Lord we will cry out for pure spiritual milk in order to grow up in our salvation. That is, our faith is working in us so we live by faith (Romans 1:16-17)
Bible Verses to read
Mark 9:24, Galatians 5:22–23, Psalm 32:8, Romans 5:3–5
Thank you so much. I really need help in the faith and my unbelief !
this is helping me so much. please keep me in prayer. thanks
Thank you Emma for your comment. We pray you keep fighting the good fight of faith. Hold tight to Jesus.
God’s Grace to Paul
1 Timothy 1:12-20 12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, that He considered me faithful and appointed me to service. 13 I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy. 14 And the grace of our Lord overflowed to me, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. 16 But for this very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
18 Timothy, my child, I entrust you with this command in keeping with the previous prophecies about you, so that by them you may fight the good fight, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and thereby shipwrecked their faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
Thank you for this article. I struggle with believing God could and would heal me from hypothyroidism and infertility. With hypothyroidism there is so much, losing hair, brain fog, sore muscles, being cold, etc….These have brought me to suicidal thoughts and depression at times because it seems like it’s never going to end. I’m like this father, I’ve cried out to God and I’ve apologized because I have a hard time trusting Him, believing that He would do this for me. Please keep me in your prayers.
Annie,
The most important thing to know is when we go through the fire we are not alone. I know this struggle as did many in the bible.
Job lost his wealth, his children, and his health. His wife told him to curse God and die (Job 1-2;2:9).
David filled the Psalms crying out to God for help. At times he felt alone, depressed, ashamed, confused, and so on.
Elijah ran away out of fear and tried to hide believing he was the only godly man left. He became so depressed he wanted to die.
There are many more. Each one of these people, in the end, saw God in a different and clearer way.
Job 42:2-6 NASB1995 2 “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” 4 ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.”
I am not saying I have complete understanding. But I do know a crisis will show us who we are and who God is.
And though Jesus told us we would suffer in this world, it seems to come as a surprise. At least I didn’t see my test coming.
1 Timothy 6:12 NASB1985 6 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I thought I knew what God meant by this but I really did not. Once we are re-born through faith in Jesus the Christ, we walk out onto the battlefield. Our fight is against Satan who wants to kill our hope, steal our trust in the faithfulness of God to His word, and destroy our witness (John 10:10).
The war is and has been against the Truth. We battle against Satan’s lie with God’s truth in our thoughts. This is why we allow God’s word to renew our mind (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
I will not pretend this is easy or at times even seems doable. But I do know what it is to live in this world without God and no hope. Sometimes it is a second by second choice but there is no turning back.
Ephesians 2:8-10 KJV 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We might be at a stand still in life for a season but we were re-created in Christ for a specific purpose. When we come out of the fire, the impurities are cleansed and we come out knowing deeper the One in whom we trust (John 17:3).
Great message to build faith!
Hi Mary, Thank you for the comment. It is so nice to be able to chat with you again. We hope you like the website and any feedback would be greatly appreciated. It will not hurt my feelings (Jennifer). Praying for you and hope all is well. God Bless You! Jennifer