Unbelief

Mark 9:24
At once the father of the boy gave (an eager, piercing, inarticulate) cry with tears, and he said, "Lord, I believe (Constantly) help my unbelief (weakness of faith).

Most of you know the story from Mark 9.
Desperate to see his boy healed.
Demonic oppression and presence caused the young boy to be throw into fire...to be constantly in pain.
The Father had probably done all a parent could do. Doctors....couldn't help. Family gave all the good advice a family could give, which probably included home remedy's.He may have even taken his son to the religious rulers of the day. But they could offer nothing more than flowery platitudes and pious looks. Through all of this the Father grew more desperate, having to stand by and watch his son tormented and injured. We're not told how long this went on. Really doesn't matter...the father reached the end of his wits and rope. Being at such a place will shatter a man's pride and belief in himself. 

I can see him take up his son in his arms, walking out the door to go find this so called prophet from Galilee. The father arrives on the scene with his son, but finds no prophet. The prophets disciples are there, and the father may have thought it was a wasted trip, but he stayed. The disciples took the boy and prayed and spoke words over him. The father thought to himself, "I've heard these before." Where was the prophet? Where was Jesus?

Suddenly the crowd parted and through it walked the man the father had come searching for. The father thought to himself, "Is this the man I've traveled all this way to find?" There was nothing about his appearance that bolstered the father's confidence. Not the way he dressed.....not the way he walked and carried himself...nothing about him seemed to say, "I can heal you boy." But Jesus stood before him. It was the moment of truth. It was now or never. Jesus was the last hope for this father. 

The father speaks...."If you can do anything, do have pity on us and help us." Plural....us...not him, my son, but "us". Such events as this family was going through touched every member. The pain the boy felt was multiplied ten fold because of the parents inability to solve this problem. "Help us!"

Jesus tells the father, "All things are possible to those who believe!"
At this point, Jesus wasn't talking about a mental assurance followed by a verbal confession. Jesus was going straight down into the heart. The place where all our morals and beliefs exist. The place where we know the real truth about ourselves. Desperation has a way of getting down into that heart-place. It brings up the real you, not the one everyone else sees. It brings forth all your doubt and fear...it flies the flag of what you truly cling to. Here is where the Father cries out..."I believe..help my unbelief."  He isn't double minded...it wasn't a riddle..this "belief"/ "unbelief". It was the truth of a father that wanted to believe for the healing of his son, but at the same time was beaten down by the failures of all the others who had tried to help. He was merely saying..."If I didn't believe, I would never have brought my son to you...but please..please..don't be like all the others. Heal him."
Jesus did.
Jesus healed the boy.

In every person who struggles with the darkness and sin  of addiction, there is that point that must be reached. The place where the father reached...the place of "I believe...help my unbelief." The place where the heart is behind the cry of the one in need of healing. The place where desperation says,"I will do whatever it takes." The place where you are sick and tired of being sick and tired. As one young man prayed, 'God---either heal me, or kill me....I can't go on like this any longer." As I listened to him pray this prayer, I knew he was ready to change. He had tried everything else and gotten no result. In his mind, Jesus was all that left. 
You know what?
That was over 10 years ago, and this man is still clean and sober. Still chasing this Jesus who changed his life.
I think maybe Jesus helped this man with his unbelief.
What do you think?

God on you...
mb