Planting Doubt

"Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.  So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."  Mark 9:17, 18

The next comment from Jesus was this:  "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him to Me."  Then, after answering a question on his son's condition, the father says, "But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

Apparently, the disciples' unbelief in the face of insurmountable odds planted a strong seed of doubt in a non-disciple.  However, when the Lord entered the situation He corrected it immediately. Of course the truly good, unlimited Master of the Universe had compassion and could help and He said, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."

The result was the praying of a truly great prayer in scripture:  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

This is a clear illustration of how our weakness of doubt clouds the concept of His all sufficiency for those who are watching us in their lost condition, as well as our own brethren who observe our behavior.  They see us living under our circumstances instead of projecting our confidence in His all sufficiency.  As the lost onlookers and our brethren start thinking, "IF this Jesus can do anything..." or worse, the Lord Himself can just as well say to us, "O faithless generation..."

A perceptive but lost man recently made the comment, "I believe in Jesus but not in His followers."  You have to concede that his thinking is valid and he has probably seen too much unbelief in the words and actions of followers of Jesus.  We should pray that the Lord will enter the situation and convince this man of his desperate need to believe and that his heart would respond, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

Statement of Position - Holding The Master Key

"And Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us.  For there is nothing to prevent the Lord from saving by many or by few."
1 Samuel 14:6

Jonathan revealed that he had chosen to trust in God's power and all sufficiency.  There is no doubt where he stood when he said the above underlined sentence.  No doubt, with faith like that, we'll see him in heaven.  That sentence is one of the more important records of faith connected to the Lord Jesus offering Himself on the cross, as only One, to save billions.

We were discovering the blog of someone who has been through great difficulty.  Not knowing at first what she really believes, we saw the statement below and immediately knew there was an unshakable faith wrought from believing in Him and seeing His power.

That's the safe shelter, the strong tower that we can all run into and be safe in every large or small circumstance.

Thank the Lord for the faith that He gives us and ask Him to increase it.