Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24, NASB)
I have a friend who, many years ago, took his wife to play golf for the very first time. On the third hole she made a hole-in-one. After that shot, she got in their cart and said, “That’s it. No more golf for me.” She never hit another shot or played golf again.
This young woman knew that she had just done what many who people play a lifetime never experience, so she felt like she might as well end on the perfect note.
Some of you are probably thinking, “I believe you, but that’s hard for me to believe.”
Based on your own personal experience of playing the game and your rough but quick mathematical odds figuring in your head, it is a hard story to believe—especially, if the rumor is true that Ben Hogan never made a hole-in-one. I am not sure which is harder for me to believe, but for some reason I accept them both to be true.
I find this to be the case in my spiritual life as well. I believe that everything I read in Scripture is God-breathed and true to the intent and context of the writer; however, I often struggle to believe some things to be true as they apply to me.
Ask God to reveal to you what he is up to in the seasons of pain, struggle, sorrow, and despair.
Here are a few examples:
– “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). “Yeah, right!”
– “Whatever you ask in My name that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). “Operator, I think I’ve got a bad connection!”
– “…truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20). “Okay, Jesus, enough with the hyperbole.”
In Mark 9 prior to today’s verse, a demon possessed boy’s father was pleading for Jesus to heal his son, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Jesus replied, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”
Well, I don’t struggle to believe that God can do anything. If he created everything out of nothing, flooded the earth, parted the Red Sea, raised his Son back to life after being dead for three days, and saved a wretch like me, then he can do anything. I believe! I just struggle in my faith to believe that he desires to bless me, personally. Help my unbelief!
Can you relate?
Do you ever feel disappointed by God? Let down? Abandoned? Ignored?
It’s OK. Let him know how you feel. Talk to him about it. Ask him to reveal to you what he is up to in the seasons of pain, struggle, sorrow, and despair. And do not let the enemy’s lies squash your belief. Invite Jesus in to heal your areas of disbelief.
—
Josh Nelson
August 23, 2021
Copyright 2021 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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