What Is The Meaning Of “I Believe; Help My Unbelief” In Mark 9:24
...Everything is possible for one who believes.’ (Mark 9:23)
We need a constant reminder as Christians about this passage. It's not uncommon to have doubts in our faith during difficult times. Feelings of fear, frustration, or disappointment may make us doubt our faith. Nonetheless, there is great comfort and assurance that through fixing our eyes on the author and perfector of our faith and learning more about his love, power, and past faithfulness our faith can be renewed and strengthened.
A Father’s Cry For Help
A gotquestions.org article answered the meaning of this prayer in the Bible. This tells a story of a man asking the Lord for help. Christ had just emerged from the mountain of transfiguration. A large crowd surrounded His disciples as they were having an argument. Jesus asked what was going on and a man came to Him and fell to his knees in tears. According to the man, the disciples had tried to cast a demon from his son but failed. Jesus asked for the boy to be brought to Him. The father said to Jesus: “If you can do anything, help us”. Take note of the word “if” (Mark 9:22). With a reminder, Jesus said, “If you can!” It means: “What do you mean, if I can? All things are possible to him who believes.” The father then cried “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).
Read the entire article here.
A Prayer For Faith
There can be some contradictions in the man's statement. He claims to believe, but admits he is not convinced. In his view, faith in God is more than a single choice or just a switch we can flip when we are saved.
Heather Adams wrote that she heard the idea that God changes us gradually. Our faith is no different. Our belief grows over time in accordance with our understanding of the power and love of God and our willingness to:
Let go of trying to control
Submit to God's will
Trust in God's ability
In the story, the father realized that he wasn't capable of healing his son on his own and needed God. He trusted that Jesus could heal him. As a result, his child was cured, and his faith strengthened.
Jesus relates successful healing to prayer in this chapter. His disciples asked Him, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?' The Lord Jesus replied, ‘This kind can come out only by prayer.’
In this story, the writer describes a parent who has been fighting for his son's life for a long time. Usually, we are not confronted with such dramatic situations. We can, however, use the principles to prevent doubt from setting in during all kinds of momentary or ongoing challenges.
4 Ways and Prayers to Ask God to Help Our Unbelief
1. Help My Unbelief About Reconciliation
2. Help My Unbelief When I Struggle to Forgive
3. Help My Unbelief About Healing
4. Help My Unbelief About Provision
Find out more about this prayer for faith here.
Belief In God Vs. Personal Faith
According to an article by ActiveChristinity, the man brought his son to Jesus after hearing that he could heal him; otherwise, he would not have requested Jesus to cure his son. He showed his faith in Jesus by bringing his son to him. What was the point of him saying "help my unbelief?".
We do not need to look too far to get an answer. Millions of people around the world go to church to hear God’s Word and read the Bible; these acts can be considered statements of faith in what we hear and read. But what about our faith for ourselves? Do we really have faith that God’s Word can be accomplished in our lives?
There is a difference between believing something is true in a general sense vs. belief that those truths can be real for you in your life. You may trust God enough to show up on Sunday but do you trust him enough to call the shots in your life?
The author, Ian Weatherall asked these questions:
Do you have faith that God’s Word can be accomplished in your life?
Do you believe that the glorious words you read can really take place in you?
If the depth of your confidence is shallow ask God to help your unbelief like the father in the story did because Jesus honored his request and elsewhere states that anyone who seeks will find and to him who knocks the door will be opened.
When doubt arose the thing this father did right was to put the little faith he did have in the right person. He trusted God to be the source of his faith. He didn’t try to muster it up by willpower or trust in his own abilities to change his own heart.
He gave his heart to God and said please strengthen this. Strengthening weak faith is not a matter of turning our focus inward to try to be better, it is to fix our eyes on the source of our faith and remember who he really is. When our faith is in the right person he can take even a mustard seed amount of it and move mountains.