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!"
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