Have you ever needed something and had no idea how you would acquire it? Have you needed to be somewhere and unsure how you would get there? Has it ultimately worked out? Did it come about because of your belief that God would provide?
We may face a situation where we are in dire need of help. A situation we cannot overcome on our own. It may be a situation for which we are at no fault. We become distraught and desperate, seeking help from wherever we can find it.
It is in situations like these that people often reach out to God looking for a miracle. Or they shout at God asking why He allowed it to happen. Either way, they look to God.
It is when we reach out to God asking for His intervention that He answers. It is when we fall to our knees that He is attentive to our plea. It is when we admit our own failings and submit to His awesome power that He reveals Himself to us.
In today’s passage, a father asks Jesus to help his son. The Apostles could not help. The Rabbi’s could not help. The Pharisees could not help. The teachers of the law could not help. There was nowhere else to turn. If Jesus could not help, the situation was hopeless.
The good news is Jesus brings hope. He gives the father hope. The father admits his lack of belief and asks Jesus to help him overcome his unbelief. In other words, the father had a trickle of belief, but not a wholehearted belief. He knows it. He admits it. And Jesus answers his request by ridding his son of the demon.
It is when we admit to both God and ourselves that we are not in control that He works in our lives. Why? Our pride and desire to be in control can keep God at bay, not allowing Him to work in our lives. He won’t force us to submit to Him. Yet, when we do, He works mightily in our lives.
I pray we all admit our failings before God. I pray we submit to God’s mighty power. I pray each one of us relinquish our thoughts of being in control, giving up our pride to submit to God. Admit your failings. Give up control. Give up your pride. Ask God to intervene. See Him work mightily in your life.
Mark 9:23-24 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Marty Pressey 