Theme: Fight with Faith at Full Strength
Mark
9:17-29 Out of the crowd, one man answered Him, "Teacher, I brought my son
to You. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Wherever it seizes
him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and
becomes rigid. So I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they
couldn't." 19 He replied to them, "You unbelieving generation! How
long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to
Me." 20 So they brought him to Him. When the spirit saw Him, it
immediately convulsed the boy. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming
at the mouth. 21 "How long has this been happening to him?" Jesus
asked his father. "From childhood," he said. 22 "And many times
it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if You can do
anything, have compassion on us and help us." 23 Then Jesus said to him,
" 'If You can? ' Everything is possible to the one who believes."
24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, "I do believe! Help my unbelief." 25
When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly coming together, He rebuked the unclean
spirit, saying to it, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out
of him and never enter him again!" 26 Then it came out, shrieking and
convulsing him violently. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said,
"He's dead." 27 But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he
stood up. 28 After He went into a house, His disciples asked Him privately,
"Why couldn't we drive it out?" 29 And He told them, "This kind
can come out by nothing but prayer.”
For
several years, I’ve enjoyed watching the show Survivorman. As the title
suggests, it’s about a man who is trained in survival skills who goes out into
the wilderness for a week at a time, by himself, to demonstrate how to survive.
In one particular episode, he wanted to simulate a common survival scenario,
being out in the wilderness with an injury. To portray this, he tied one arm
around his back for the entire week he was on his own – to try and resemble a
broken arm. In another episode, he fashioned a splint which restricted his leg
movement, in order to mimic a sprained ankle or broken leg.
As
you can well imagine, it made surviving exponentially more difficult. Even
though he wasn’t in a real life or death situation, the injuries made him much more
prone to mental and physical exhaustion. For someone truly surviving this would be a
tremendous toll that would be difficult to recover from. When you’re in the
middle of something so important, literally that life is on the line, you need
to properly use every resource available for your survival.
Today,
we study one of the biggest tools God gives our faith – prayer. But all too
often, our view of prayer restricts the true power it has. It’s like having an
arm tied behind your back or walking with a splint, when you’re trying to
survive against the agents of Satan. Prayer is the direct communication line
that God gives the believer. You can call on Him in any setting, at any time,
and for any reason. He promises to always hear and to always respond.
But
prayer is also often the most maligned gift from God. Prayer is often the first
thing to go when we lack trust. Think about it. What do you do when you grow
distant from someone else? You stop talking to them. You go to great lengths to
avoid them. You start to come up with a host of reasons why the divide is their
fault – you become acutely aware of their problems. We do this with God too. We
see here the connection between faith (which is trust) and prayer. Faith is
really the substance of our relationship with God. It’s what connects us to
Him. And prayer flows from faith, but it also affects faith.
Just
like when our earthly relationships sour, so it is in faith. Words are often
the first thing to go – God’s Word to you and your words to God (prayer). This
isn’t earth-shattering news. I think we all know this by experience. We’ve all
had moments where we’ve wondered in the back of our minds if our prayers are
really doing anything. We’re good about talking about prayer, promising to pray
for others, or simply extending the thought of a prayer as nothing more than a “hello”
to a stranger. But, do we really believe what God promises through prayer? Do
we approach it as if we are talking directly to God? Are we always respectful
and alert in our prayers? These are the questions we face when we really take
prayer seriously, when we treat it as more than a catchphrase.
It
amazes me how easy it is as a Christian to talk positively about prayer without
actually believing that it does anything before God. It’s sad and astounding.
It’s humbling because I know how easy it is to think this way. And it’s
debilitating because it puts our faith at a serious disadvantage. In my
experience, the most common way people think about prayer is that it’s simply a
way to improve your mental outlook. Prayer is compared to meditation, in which
a person centers their thoughts or becomes more mindful of their surroundings.
So, even many Christians think of prayer as something like that and nothing
more. On the more extreme end, many also doubt any element of prayer’s
effectiveness, even to the point of having a bitter attitude toward prayer, and
God, because it didn’t work for them in the past.
When
people feel this way it’s usually because they’ve gone through something
terrible, emotionally gut-wrenching, or logically confounding with the promises
of God. And it’s so incredibly sad when a person’s outlook at having gone
through such a situation is to diminish prayer, to lose trust in God, and to
forge their own path ahead. Modern replacements for prayer are the common buzz
words: research, science, studies, evidence – all good things in their proper
forum (that are gifts from God to be used) but often that become a way to
elevate human thinking about God’s Word.
What
makes this challenging as Christians is that unbiblical views of prayer
permeate our culture. It’s almost impossible not to sound insincere or
offensive when doing exactly what Jesus did in this text – pointing someone who
is in the midst of a great trial to trust God. As it is with prayer, in many
peoples’ minds that’s equal to saying, have a better attitude about it. That’s
because faith and prayer have been belittled so much to have little more effect
than a positive mindset. But, when we see Jesus teach, He reinforces the power
of prayer and faith. Not wishy, “hope upon a dream” power, but actual power
from God.
Consider
the way Jesus spoke in this setting. It’s hard not to be shocked at what He
said, especially to the man whose son was suffering. First of all, when asked
to intervene, Jesus bemoaned the lack of faith by everyone involved, citing the
entire generation. In v. 23, after the boy’s father implies an element of
uncertainty about Jesus’ ability, he is quickly admonished by Jesus. Jesus
tells him, "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible
for one who believes." The tone of our Savior indicates that this
father should have known better than to doubt. But who among us can blame the
father? If any of us heard this quote without knowing Jesus said it, wouldn’t
we feel that it was too forceful and uncompassionate? Yet, Jesus said it and
took the time to do so for a reason.
Jesus
knew this father needed help with more than just his son’s life. In the same
way, Jesus knows you need more than help with just what you’re facing in this
life. Faith ultimately looks ahead to eternity and heaven. The
Christian’s belief is one of trust no matter the circumstances of the world
because there is a greater gift from God than the blessings of this world –
even if those blessings are good health, a sound mind, and personal safety. As
Jesus postulated in the prior chapter of Mark, “What good does it do a
person to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul? (Mark 8:36) We typically
apply that passage to greed, coveting, and personal desire but it also applies
to even the earthly needs we have; even the times when it seems fair to
criticize God because I need something right now. Faith is first and foremost
about your soul and about eternity, and you need be willing to part with
anything in this world, even your own life, if the Lord so calls you to that
end.
These
are not easy things to talk about. People, even fellow Christians, will hate
you for reminding them to trust God no matter what. You will be called cold and
calloused, but it will be worth it if you help them see who Jesus is just a
little more clearly. This struggle of faith is described perfectly in the
father’s response to Jesus’ rebuke, in v.24: Immediately the father of the
boy cried out, "I do believe! Help my unbelief."
There
it is – the collision of faith and experience. The life of the believer. “I
believe, help my unbelief.” This father was not claiming to be both a believer
and unbeliever at the same time. He was pleading for help with his inward
tendency to doubt, to question, and to criticize God. These are natural
reactions, meaning they happen without us having to purposely do them. It is
easy to question God. Yet the struggle is to not allow that to overcome your
trust of God. It’s not wrong to have questions, or even to have doubts, or to
hold God to His promises. He wants you to seek, to search, to fact-check, to
take Him at His Word. But there absolutely is a danger of letting the
struggle overtake your faith, or become more important to you than what God has
done for you. That defeat manifests itself with the attitude that although God
is present, and all-powerful, He really doesn’t have a direct influence in my
life. In terms of faith, defeat says, God’s Word is not true. God’s promises
will not happen. Faith is an abstract, mental thing at best. And tools like
prayer, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper are merely symbolic and figurative in
purpose – God does not work through them. This is the fight and God wants you
to be at full strength with the tools He gives you.
“But
you don’t know what I’ve been through.” “Who are you to tell me what I need?”
“Don’t you care about what I’m up against?” Listen, I get it. I’ve heard those sentiments
before. I’ve felt them before. We all have in one way or another. The truth
that sometimes when we’re experiencing great pain, loss, or agony, there’s
still something we need to listen to from God – just like Jesus had something
to tell the father in this lesson. Sometimes, in fact, that’s precisely
the reason God allows hardship in your life, because He’s trying to tell you
something. Simply listening to God’s Word, then, becomes perhaps the greatest
tool you’ve been given. What a disadvantage you’ll be at if you choose not to
listen.
The
tools of fighting by faith are meant to remind you of Christ’s effectiveness –
which is also the effectiveness of your faith. To encourage you to pray and do
so completely trusting God’s power. To shift your gaze to Jesus and the best
gift He offers by forgiveness and strength for your soul is not to minimize
your struggle. Nor is to emphasize one person’s opinion over your experience.
Rather, it’s to show you the greatest source of healing, answers,
encouragement, and peace – through faith in Jesus.
And
if you have someone in your life who loves you enough to point you to trust
God, even when every other part of you resists that as nothing more than a
cliché, just think about that for a moment, and thank God that you have someone
who loves you that much – that they’re willing to put their reputation with you
on the line in order to keep your sights on Jesus and eternity.
The
man went away that day, not just with a son who was healed, but with a stronger
faith in Jesus as His Savior. His son’s body was restored, but their souls were
also nourished. In other words, the man didn’t just get what he wanted, he
got something even better. In a similar way, there will be times when Jesus
answers “yes” to your persistent prayer request. There will be other times He
says “no.” There will be times when He wants you to look in a different place –
to seek more intently through His Word. There will be times when the struggle
rages on – when it feels like no end is in sight. You will be tempted to turn
your question into a doubt, to raise your plea to an accusation, and to replace
your trust with criticism. Whatever your story may be, you won’t be the only
one going through it, but more importantly you’ll never have a Savior who turns
His back on you.
His
lesson today is don’t put yourself at a disadvantage and into danger by
neglecting or resisting the blessings of your faith in Jesus – blessings like
prayer, blessings like faith that believes, blessings like fellow Christians who
offer admonishment, advice, and encouragement in the best direction for your
soul and your eternal well-being.
“Everything
is possible to the one who believes.” Not because of the one who believes, but because
of the One whom you believe. So, let it be in our faith – “Lord I believe,
help my unbelief.”
Amen.
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