Mark 9:24 Help my unbelief!

Mark 9:24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

The story is about a father who has a really bad demon possessed boy. Like the kid is pretty messed up. When Jesus comes, the father says this (v22) “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But IF YOU CAN do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

Everything points to this guy not truly believing that Jesus can do anything, even with all the stories of other healings.

Is it just me, or is this us? I mean, we don’t have any possessed children (well, I hope not…), but aren’t we like the father? Always second guessing what God can do? I mean, we know that He can do everything and we know that He’s done many things for others, but what about us? They great thing about this story is this and it spoke to me a lot. The father didn’t hold back his son. In fact, he asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief by giving Him what was seemingly unbelievable. Did that make sense? Here let me try that again. He gave Jesus the one thing that the father thought was impossible. He took that leap of faith in giving God what was “unbelievable” and let God use that to work on his unbelief.

What is your “child” in this case? For me, it’s the thought of money. I’ve been placed in a situation where money seems to be my “child.” My parents don’t have much and I’ve been pretty much living off of them, but now it’s to the point where a) I don’t want to depend on them and b) I don’t think I can depend on them anymore with all this “new stuff.”

I heard this once and it really stuck to me. How can we see God’s faithfulness if we don’t allow Him to show it? How can our faith be proven right if we don’t put our faith out there? How can I allow God to help me with my money situation if I don’t put myself out there in faith? How can God show you He’s faithful if you don’t allow Him to?

What’s great is this… Faith, even if you don’t a lot of it, God will still respond if you step out. The father, who was still weak in his faith, gave his son to Jesus and He proved Himself faithful by healing His son.

Remember this (and I’m speaking to myself mostly) Matt 6:33 Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and He will give you what you need (or what the pagans run after).

Mark 9:23b “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Mark 12:41-44 It’s the sacrifice, not the gift.

I’ve heard this story many times and I’ve known this application for years…..but for some reason, it only hit me hard today.

⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴²But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

⁴³Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

When it comes to service to the Lord, it’s not how much you give to God, but rather how much you sacrifice FOR HIM that he cares about. In this story, you see how the rich come and give a whole lotta money to the church, but they gave out of their wealth, probably meaning that if they were put in the same situation with less wealth, they wouldn’t do the same thing.

The poor widow, on the otherhand, gave up her two copper coins which don’t even add up to a penny, yet this is the women that God said placed more money in the treasury than all the other offering givers.

When you look at the sacrifice that the wealthy gave up, it was nothing. They still had plenty of money to live comfortably, securely, and get what they want. The widow gave up her comfort, her security, they things she wanted for the sake of the church and Jesus said that she gave more to the church than any of the other people.

So the real question you have to ask yourself is, are you willing to give up everything you have for the church and for God? Your comforts, your security, your wants?

They are not without reward though. Matt 6:33, Luke 9:24, Ps 37:4, Gal 6:9, these all have the condition statement that if you do God’s will and His work for His sake, you will be given everything you need. Do you believe it?

Truly, do you believe that?