Overcoming Unbelief

 Since we speak English, we have certain ways of looking at things that are different from how it was when the New Testament was written in Greek. One very important example of this is the word "believe." In English we most often think about believing in something with our mind, our intellect. It is like, "I believe George Washington was the first president of the United States." It is simply believing a fact. In Greek the word "believe" means to have faith in something or someone. That is totally different, isn't it?

Jesus was asked to heal a man's son. He told the man that if he could believe, anything was possible. The man responded with a very transparent answer. (Mark 9:24) "The father instantly cried out, 'I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief." Jesus healed his son because he saw that the man did have faith in Jesus to be able to do that. However, the father realized that he was not able to have faith in Jesus for everything. We can all learn from this honest reply, as we apply it to our life.

As Christians, we have all believed in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We have faith that He died on the cross and rose again for our sins. We have faith that He can forgive our sins because of His finished work on the cross. When Jesus sees that genuine faith, He does forgive our sins and give us eternal life. Then, Jesus wants us to live by faith in Him every day, believing we can depend on Him in every area of our life. That is where the unbelief can come into the picture.

We have to be honest with ourselves and with God. We have to take an inventory of our life and see if there are any areas where we don't have faith that He will meet those needs. Those things are our unbelief. Do we really have faith that Jesus will meet our financial needs, or do we depend on ourselves in that area? Do we really have faith that Jesus can direct us to the right spouse or the right job? If we have unbelief in either of those areas, it has a negative impact on our life. We need to turn over every part of our life to Jesus and have faith for Him to direct and to provide, instead of trying to do it ourselves.

Tomorrow, I intend to read Mark 10-12.