Help My Unbelief | Mark 9:14-29
Have you ever heard the statement, “After great spiritual highs there are often spiritual lows?” There are moments in our walk with God that we feel the presence of God, we get excited about our lives and then all of a sudden reality hits and disaster breaks out. Maybe you have had a great vacation and then come home and all hell breaks loose. Maybe you had a spiritual victory over sin and then you fall to another temptation. Maybe you had a great moment with your family and then the next day everything is turned upside down. It is amazing how quickly we can move from confidence to crisis mode, especially in our faith. That which we believe so passionately today, we are tempted to deny tomorrow. The reality is that normal, ordinary life has highs and lows; good days and bad days; ups and downs. The question is, how will we respond when things get low, bad, and down? Faith is fine in the sunshine but how is it in the rain? I found that many of my struggles in life are over my personal doubt and unbelief issues; manifested in my underestimation of who Jesus is and what He can do or in my overestimation of who I am and what I can do.
Chapter 9 is a turning point in Mark’s gospel that focuses on why Jesus came and what it looks like to follow Him. Mark moves us from the glory of Jesus on the mountain to the need for the grace in the valley. He spends a lot of time telling us what happened in the valley because it is important. Jesus was not doing just some random act of kindness. This is not just a story, but an event with a real dad, real disciples, a real son, and a real problem. Jesus is going to take time to heal this kid to teach us about our need for faith and prayer as we follow Him. Jesus wants to move us from desperation to desperate dependence. When you are desperate for help, you must always depend only on Jesus.