Pure Faith: A Study of What Faith Is and How to Live It Out Loud releases today! Today’s excerpt is a continuation of the two previous posts (6/1 and 6/3). Enjoy…and when you’re ready to order your copy or learn more, click here!
So the followers brought him to Jesus. As soon as the evil spirit saw Jesus, it made the boy lose control of himself, and he fell down and rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening?”
The father answered, “Since he was very young. The spirit often throws him into a fire or into water to kill him. If you can do anything for him, please have pity on us and help us.”
Jesus said to the father, “You said, ‘If you can!’ All things are possible for the one who believes.”
Immediately the father cried out, “I do believe! Help me to believe more!” (Mark 9:20-24)
In addition to the father in Mark 9 believing, he also doubted. Of course, believing and doubting go hand in hand, but let’s be careful of the relationship we assign to them. It’s not an all-or-nothing relationship. An ounce of doubt doesn’t negate all belief, and a dash of belief doesn’t pull doubt out of its funk. One doesn’t cancel out the other.
The spiritual confusion of the father reflects the intellectual and emotional turmoil that can plague any of us at a given moment in our lives. No one has a “red-hot” faith 24/7. It’s important to consider what characterizes your faith. Temperature matters, and it’s not about the average point of your faith. In other words, if you could assign a number to your faith in every moment, then add them together and divide them by the amount of temperature readings you have, you’d get the mean. However, you could have one or two red-hot, off-the-chart readings (or ice-cold, frozen-to-the-core readings) that distort the more consistent readings. Of course, we can’t create a mathematical assessment and value of our faith. We must pay attention to the daily moment opportunities of and reactions from our faith while also keeping a satellite-view of our faith. The details matter, but if we don’t keep an eye on the context of the details, we can get off track one small step at a time.
Even when we are firm in our faith, we can have moments of doubt. We can know the God who made us. We can know he cares and provides for us. We can acknowledge and accept he loves us so much he sent his Son to die a horrific death in order to live again, clearing the way for us to live eternally with him if we so choose. At the same time that we firmly know these truths, we can be in a situation in which we’re hurting so badly that our hearts may overpower our heads. Anytime we begin to think and respond out of the feelings we’re experiencing, we’re likely to err. That includes responding in doubt, because we feel angry, neglected, confused, fearful, or mistreated, and we wonder, “what if?” God gave us emotions to enhance life, not dictate it. Emotions are strong at times, and we respond in a variety of ways. We become silent and refuse to talk with God. (He still hears what we’re not saying.) We throw questions and demands at him. We plead and bargain with him. We even use Scriptures to tell him what he should do. Hurling Scriptures is not the same as claiming Scriptures.
In these moments, we are often saying, in essence, the same thing the father in Mark 9 cries out, “I do believe! Help me to believe more!” To have doubt, or unbelief, doesn’t mean salvation is in jeopardy. It doesn’t mean you question who God is. It can be as simple as having a gap in faith. It’s a place that needs to be reinforced and filled, and the best thing we can do when we’re in such a need is to ask God to fill it! He is the master builder of our lives. The choice to have faith or not is ours as individuals, but God meets us where we are. As we know him, our assurance firms. God doesn’t change through faith; he changes us.
The worst thing to do in a moment of doubt is try to ignore or hide it. The sooner you reveal it to God as a need or a weakness, the more quickly you will be working with him to let your faith consume the doubt. When weeds are left unattended, they can overwhelm the healthy plants around them. Left unchecked, doubt will choke out faith. A quick trim of doubt won’t do the trick. It has to be completely uprooted, and only God has the insight and strength to know exactly what is needed in each situation of doubt. Invite him into the process. He’s already involved and invested anyway, because it’s about our relationship with him. Also, recognize that identifying, acknowledging, and uprooting the doubt aren’t the only steps required in the process. We also must grow in faith. When the doubt is uprooted, there is a space that makes some areas of our faith vulnerable. Any gap uprooted doubts leave behind are just as susceptible to grow doubts again as they are to grow faith. And while the bare spot exists, the surrounding faith is vulnerable. We have to constantly ask God to examine, test, and prove our faith. It’s an uncomfortable process, but if we say we are faithful, we yield to God in every way and don’t give attention to our comfort but focus on the process of faithfulness.
Invite God to refine your faith and reveal any weak spaces.
Using the gift God gave me, I laid the foundation of that house like an expert builder. Others are building on that foundation, but all people should be careful how they build on it. The foundation that has already been laid is Jesus Christ, and no one can lay down any other foundation. But if people build on that foundation, using gold, silver, jewels, wood, grass, or straw, their work will be clearly seen, because the Day of Judgment will make it visible. That Day will appear with fire, and the fire will test everyone’s work to show what sort of work it was. If the building that has been put on the foundation still stands, the builder will get a reward. But if the building is burned up, the builder will suffer loss. The builder will be saved, but it will be as one who escaped from a fire.
Do not fool yourselves. If you think you are wise in this world, you should become a fool so that you can become truly wise, because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It is written in the Scriptures, “He catches those who are wise in their own clever traps.” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15. 18-19)
For one more from the Pure Faith chapter Believe More, visit the blog on June 6th or read the past two posts (6/1 and 6/3).