Faith, part 6

In the realization that most of us lack the true faith that Christ desires we should cry out as this man did in Mark 9:24:

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

This man was not only desperate for his child to be healed, but desperate to have faith. We must be like this man, and own up to it when we lack faith. It is normal to lack faith in our own ability to have faith. We must recognize when we both believe and don’t believe. We must recognize the times we believe God has called us to do something, but we lack the faith in ourselves to do it. In such times we must pray for the faith to do what we’ve been called to do. We must pray for faith in ourselves. It is important enough to plead with the Lord about.

A lack of faith is a very serious issue. This man realized how serious a lack of faith was, and it caused tears to flow from his eyes. We should not consider a lack of faith to be any less serious than it really is. Not having faith is the same as not believing in the power of the Lord. The Lord spent the entire Old Testament working to display His power to others. He used plagues, mana from heaven, judges, kings, prophets, pillars of fire, and so many other things to show his people they could have faith in Him. Still often they doubted, and He regularly judged them for their lack of faith.

By sending Christ in the New Testament God displayed the power He has to show us mercy. When we do not have faith we doubt that power. We doubt the Lord’s work, we doubt Christ’s sacrifice, and we doubt Him. Doubt is in opposition to faith. We must fight our doubts, and embrace our faith. The Lord understands we spend our lives living in a fallen universe. If we lack faith we should want faith. If we want faith we should ask Him for it. He will not ignore our prayers.