Help Thou Mine Unbelief

Help Thou Mine Unbelief

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Mark 9:24

Here is a desperate plea from the heart of a desperate man.  As a parent, I can sympathize with this father.  He wanted nothing more deeply than for Christ to heal his son.  He wanted nothing of his own feebleness to be a hindrance to the accomplishment of that miracle.  He had already provoked a response from Christ by his statement ‘if Thou canst do anything.’  Christ responded with a challenge which struck at the man’s weak faith.  He said, ‘If thou canst believe; all things are possible to him that believeth.’  To this the man responded, pleadingly and tearfully, ‘Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.’

How often can we also utter his heartfelt confession?  We confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  We confess that we believe in Him.  We believe that He is Our Great God and Our Savior.  We believe that He ‘is able to keep us from falling ‘  But we also stumble at the same point as this man did.  We can wholeheartedly say, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and in the same breath admit our unbelief.  Let us honestly acknowledge our own high level of unbelief.

We also have the same magnificent recourse as this man did.  ‘Help Thou,’ is the simplest of prayers.  It is so simple that our smallest children can utter it.  It is a very direct prayer.  ‘Help Thou’ calls to the Helper, implores Him to exert His power on our helpless behalf.  ‘Help Thou,’ is doctrinally the soundest of prayers.  Within it is the implicit acknowledgement of our absolute dependence upon the sovereign intervention of the all-powerful God.  ‘Help Thou’ is the most fervent of prayers.  It breathes urgency and complete necessity.  ‘Help Thou,’ is a prayer that is full of faith for the granting of greater faith.  We are a people today with many hard cases to bring before the Lord.

Let our prayer today be

‘Lord, I believe,

help Thou my unbelief!’

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice