Unbelief

Mark 9:21-24 tells a story of Jesus healing a boy with an evil spirit, “’But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’
‘If you can’?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for him who believes.’
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’”

I was hanging upside down with nowhere to go but down. Down was right below my head. Down was cement. There I was, eight years old and filled with unbelief.

My parents were adding on to our house, so every evening there was scaffolding left in our yard. So, of course, my brother and I thought of it as new playground equipment. However, the playtime stopped when my foot got caught between the bars of the scaffolding. I was stuck and afraid I was going to fall and die, with my head cracked open on the sidewalk.

Later my mom told me that when my brother came inside the house to get help, she could barely understand anything he said because he was laughing too much. Even though my brother didn’t take my pain seriously, God would never leave me, even in my times of unbelief.

Sometimes we listen to the world as it whispers unbelief in our ears. The result of unbelief is frailty, weakness, pain, and loneliness. It is unbelief that trips us and keeps us from being in the presence of God. Unbelief slithers into our souls like a quiet disease and leaves us spiritually crippled and paralyzed.

We need to remember that God really does hold us. He is not put off by our struggles. We can give him the full weight of our life. When you feel God hold you, unbelief becomes belief. Belief becomes trust and trust becomes strength and rejoicing.