“I believe; help my unbelief!”
These words from Mark 9:24, said by a father asking Jesus to heal his son, come to mind in times of trial and spiritual dryness. In the darkness of doubt, our faith feels weak and ineffective. Wanting to believe is all we can do. The root of all pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust (traditionally called “the seven deadly sins”) is unbelief, lack of trust in God.
Fear and Sin
Fear is often where unbelief starts. We fear that we won’t have enough, and instead of trusting God to provide, we trust in and seek to acquire more and more money and possessions—thus falling into the vice of greed. We fear that others are doing better in life than we are, so we focus on what others have and resent them for it—envy. We fear that others don’t value us, so we make sure to value ourselves first—pride.
When we try to assuage our fears and fulfill our sinful desires in our own power, we make the same mistake that humans have been making since the Garden of Eden: trying to be our own god.
Trusting God feels risky, out of our control.
“I believe; help my unbelief!”
Fear and faith, sinner and saint, war within us for as long as we live. But we do not fight this battle alone.
Make Every Effort
We do not fight alone, but nevertheless, we must fight. This emphasis on our responsibility for our own character development might seem at odds with the Gospel of grace, but we must distinguish between justification—or our salvation through the work of Christ—and sanctification—growing into spiritual maturity through partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus saves us through His life, death, and resurrection, and our own efforts to “be good” get us exactly nowhere without Him. But once we are a part of God’s family, we grow through both our own efforts and the work of the Holy Spirit to refine and sanctify us.
We see this “both/and” of spiritual growth in Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)
Note the two uses of the word work, the first one referring to the Christian and the second one to God. Paul tells us to work out our own salvation and in the very next breath says that it is God who works in us. Working out our salvation is not something we are left to do alone. The Holy Spirit gives us not only the will to live holy lives but the strength to do so through His Word and Sacraments.
Jesus Gives Us What We Need
Of course, even with the Holy Spirit working in us, we often still fall short. When we fail and fail again, when God seems distant, when it feels like we are alone in the battle, we can cry out to God with the words of the father in Mark 9: “I believe; help my unbelief!”
The rest of the story shows us God’s heart toward us, even when we fall short:
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” … Jesus … rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out. … Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. (Mark 9:24–27)
Jesus does not wait for the father to strengthen his own faith. When the man is honest and asks for help, Jesus empowers the man to believe and heals his son.
When we find ourselves distrusting God, we can cry out to God and He will help us. We make every effort while still depending on the power and grace of God to give us what we need to increase our faith and grow to spiritual maturity. We can cry out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” and rest in the assurance that God will answer our prayer.
Scripture: ESV®.
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