The father had come to find Jesus. His son had been trapped in a cave of deafness and muteness, not able to hear nor speak. However, this father heard that there was a man who was able to heal and he hoped that this man would be able to change everything, to allow his son to hear and to speak again.

But the father nearly made a fatal flaw in his interaction with Jesus. He made his request by saying “if you can do anything…”, then going on to ask Jesus to heal his son.

“If you can…,” Jesus repeated questioningly. Are you sure you want to say it that way?, Jesus seemed to reply. Everything is possible in Christ if you believe.

And here is where I think we can all relate to this father:

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:24

The father didn’t know if he could believe it or not. They had agonized over the fact that their son couldn’t hear them. They were incredibly sad that they couldn’t speak with their son. In fact, it was probably even a family embarrassment that their son was known to be possessed by a demon, even one that wanted to regularly kill him.

The father wanted to believe, but he had suffered through so much. He had so many disappointments. He didn’t know for sure, yet, if he could trust that Jesus really could do this, that he could really heal his son.

He believed.

Yet he also admitted that he didn’t fully believe.

I think many of us can relate. There is a big difference between saying that we believe and acting upon those beliefs. There is a significant gap between theoretical understanding of the good news of the Gospel, and completely living and basing our lives on the that same Gospel. We believe, and yet we need to ask Jesus to help our unbelief. We aren’t certain that we can trust him, yet we know that we should. Our entire culture and everything in our world tells us that we must depend upon ourselves, and yet Jesus says that we can come to him and depend on him.

We believe, and yet we need to ask Jesus to help our unbelief.

I turn 51 today, and if I were to make a wish for this birthday, it would be that I would be able to fully live out the belief that I have. It would be that I would be able to truly believe and that would be known and understood because my belief became a reality. But to do that, I must continue to stay connected to Christ, continually asking him to help me overcome my unbelief in each circumstance. Will I trust him today? And tomorrow? And the next day? Lord Jesus, I believe. I pray that you help me overcome my own self when I demonstrate my unbelief.