“I
do
believe! Help my
unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
Those
words, spoken to Jesus by a man who wanted his son to be healed,
are some of
the most universally understood words in the entire Bible. We want to believe but doubts
and fears creep
in and derail us.
What
if
you were Jesus? How would
you help this
man deepen his faith? If
you were like
most churches, you would have given this man a book to read, a
mentor to visit
with or a seminar to attend. Churches
love programs!
But
what if we change the picture from spiritual things to Old
Faithful geyser in
Yellowstone National Park? What
if you
doubt that the geyser erupts approximately every 65 minutes?
You
could read a book about Old Faithful.
You could have a scientist explain the geology and why it
works the way
it does. The best way to build your
faith, though,
would be to go to Yellowstone and spend a few hours watching what
the geyser
does. If you hung around
long enough,
your disbelief would go away because you would experience it for
yourself.
When
Jesus called his first group of followers, what did he do? He did not put them in a
classroom or give
them a lecture. Rather, he
said, “Come
follow me!” (Mark 1:17) Jesus
knew that if
people walked with him day after day and watched what he did,
their faith would
grow.
The
early church had a word to describe this sort of hanging around. They called it “devotion”. “They devoted themselves to
the apostles’
teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer” (Acts 2:42). They
hung around the things of God and that caused
something to happen. It
always does.
At
the
start of this article, the father’s faith caused him to come to
Jesus. Doing so brought
about the healing of his son
and the erasing of his doubts as well.
Faith
grows when we hang around with God.
When
we read and pray and give him some time and space to work, we
start to see and
believe.
Why
not
give it a try? You are
welcome to
hang around here anytime.
Comments