For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
— Hebrews 4:15-16
We believers struggle; and as I mentioned from my pulpit recently, the struggle is real and lasting. It’s an imposition that none of us really want in our lives but, nonetheless, it persists, and will continue to do so until the day we die. One of the great struggles is with doubt. Doubt, by nature, is undermining, insidious, and even debilitating at times. It keeps us from doing the things our hearts desire to do (Romans 7:15). We may even sin as a result, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17) - doubt is that strong. We ought to be encouraged, though, for even the disciples who walked with Jesus struggled with incapacitating doubt.
They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”
And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.
When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”
— Mark 9:20-29
The boy’s father reveals so much to us, doesn’t he? Yet, we’d be remiss if we didn’t focus our attention on the words of Jesus first. Jesus clearly indicates that He is calling upon His own faith to cast the demon out of the boy. This incredible act of faith should never be overlooked. I think it’s easy to write off Jesus’ faith simply because He is the God-man. Yet, as Holy Scripture describes in detail, He didn’t use the power of His deity to perform miracles. In fact, He became a man in order to show us how faith actually works, in its perfect form.
Upon seeing the perfect faith of our Prototype, Jesus’ disciples began to query Him about their lack of power to do as He did. Jesus responded in a way that we ought to listen intently to, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer” (Mark 9:29). Now, granted, we may not be faced with exorcising demons anytime soon, but this isn’t the only application for faith, obviously. The pattern is the same; for the one who doubts is riddled with failure.
Doubt weakens us because it is fundamentally antagonistic to faith. ”But [the one who lacks wisdom] must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6).
So, then, what are we to do? It seems helpless. This would be absolutely true except for the fact that we have access to godly power through faith. Therefore, when we doubt and subsequently fail in some way, we are to respond the way the demon possessed boy’s father responded, “I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Since Jesus isn’t here on earth anymore, our greatest provision is prayer, ala Mark 9:29. In other words, in our most trying moments, our first and best option is to fall to our knees.
God is merciful, kind, and patient. May we never forget this. When we struggle with doubt, we must do as Jesus suggested, go to God in prayer. Although our instincts often tell us to do what is natural, we must avoid what is natural, turning to the supernatural, so that healing may commence. We are going to fail from time to time but that is to be expected.
Learn to expect the inevitable. For example, we doubt and we fail. God created us knowing that we’d be imperfect and in dire need of His power to work through us by means of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). If we spend our time beating ourselves up because we have doubts, we miss the mark that God has set before us and begin wasting our time. Instead, we ought to go to Him in prayer, in humility, and fragility, crying for Him to, “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Our flesh may despise this forgone dependence on another, but that is precisely how we bring glory to God.
“Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
— 1 Corinthians 10:31b
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins
