Help Thou Mine Unbelief

However long we have been Christians there are always times when we experience doubts. They may come about as a result of some personal experience, such as losing a loved one, or by a wider look at what is going on in the world - "Why doesn't God intervene?" Doubt might be induced in us because we are unable to find an answer to why God allows certain things to happen and, in common with Job and many others, be unable to answer the question, "Why do the innocent suffer and the guilty seem to get away with it?" At such times our faith seems to be under attack; it may not fail, but it does become wobbly.

Doubts seem to be common to all people, Christians included, but for those who have put their trust in Christ, no amount of doubt is going to affect their position in Him and the security of their hope. "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" and "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:28,31). When doubts assail us, it is well to remember this position and have confidence that He who has begun a good work in us, "will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). Our faith may waver; His faithfulness does not.

The unbelief in belief
During the Lord's earthly ministry a boy "possessed by a spirit" was brought to Him (Mark 9:17-27). The boy's father pleaded with Jesus, "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." Jesus replied (credulously?) "If you can?…. Everything is possible for him who believes." The father replied,

I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!

The boy's father had certainly heard of Jesus and he may have seen some of His miracles. His boy had been brought to the disciples but they had been unable to help; now the Lord Himself is asked to intervene, which He does, casting out the evil spirit.

While we must not overlook the dispensational place to which this event belongs-God's earthly purpose through the nation of Israel, with its signs and wonders, a taste of "the powers (dunamis - "miracles" Acts 2:22) of the coming age" (Hebrews 6:5)-the event has much to teach us concerning faith and doubt.

Two aspects of faith are brought out in the story. The disciples had failed to heal the boy and couldn't understand why, and the boy's father wanted to believe his son could be healed, but perhaps in the light of the disciples' failure, had his doubts.

The 'failure' of the disciples
Why were the disciples unable to cast out the spirit? They asked the Lord and His answer was, "This kind (of spirit) can come out only by prayer" (vs. 28,29). In the parallel passage in Matthew 17:19,20, the Lord's answer to the disciples was, "Because you have so little faith". Putting the two parts of His answer together, we are reminded of what the Lord said on another occasion, when He caused a fruitless fig tree to wither; "If you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea', and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask in prayer" (Matthew 21:21,22).

Christ had given the disciples "authority over evil spirits", to "drive out demons" (Matthew 3:15; 6:7,13), but the power by which they could do this came from God; it was not something inherent in them. That power came from their connection to God through prayer and their faith that He was able to confirm that "authority" given to them by Jesus in the miracles that followed.

In Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-42), Jesus Himself received strength through prayer to go through with His Father's will and face the cross. Whether doubts crossed His mind we may never know; He was certainly "distressed and troubled" and the disciples who were asked to watch with Him were unable to keep awake.

The lesson to be learnt from the disciples' failure to heal the boy is that faith and prayer go together; prayer relieves doubt, strengthens faith and makes 'miracles' possible, even if in the present dispensation they are not so obvious as the spectacular happenings of the Gospel period, associated with another hope. Many Christians can testify to this in their everyday lives. We may not have the "authority" given to the disciples and we may not live in the age when miracles, signs and wonders testified to Israel that their Messiah had come (Acts 2:22), but we are in touch with the same God and can draw near to Him "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20).

The doubt of the boy's father
The father had experienced great disappointment when the disciples had failed to help his boy. This may have been made worse if he had seen those same disciples heal other sufferers. Certainly the disciples' failure to heal the boy had led to arguments between some of the disciples and the teachers of the law. Jesus, with Peter, James and John, was returning from the mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-14) and He asked what they were arguing about. A man in the crowd answered, "I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not". The failure of the disciples to cast out the spirit seemed to have reflected on the One they claimed to represent. It is little wonder that the boy's father had doubts when responding to the Lord's statement, "Everything is possible for him who believes" and said, "I do believe; help thou mine unbelief" (v. 24 KJV).

We can probably all identify in some way with this father. We believe, but there is a nagging feeling in the back of our minds bordering on disbelief. Even the great heroes of the past had their times of doubt. Sarah, past the age for childbearing, laughed when she heard the Lord tell Abraham that she would have a son. The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:10-14).

Here lies the answer to our doubt; things that seem to be impossible with man are not so with Him for whom "all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). If only we could believe this: "Lord, help thou mine unbelief".

Faith, certainty and daily living
Doubt is the opposite of certainty, and certainty for the believer is based on faith. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). The word hupostasis, translated by the NIV "being sure of", is rendered in the KJV, "substance". It suggests 'tangible reality' rather than mere appearance and has been rendered by one expositor (Dautzenburg), 'the title deed'; a legal document that guarantees future possession.

Chapter 11 of Hebrews, after noting, "(such faith) is what the ancients were commended for", lists many Old Testament characters who had such conviction. They never received the things promised while in this life, but "were still living in faith when they died". Faith is not a one-off attitude when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, but should be a day-by-day experience underlying our every-day lives.

It is easy to write this but much more difficult to put into practice. Perhaps there will always be times during our earthly pilgrimage when we have to say, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief".