Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24
“Where is my Faith?—even deep down right in there is nothing but emptiness & darkness. . . . If there be God—please forgive me.”
The author of those words might surprise you: Mother Teresa. Beloved and renowned as a tireless servant of the poor in Calcutta, India, Mother Teresa quietly waged a desperate war for her faith over five decades. After her death in 1997, that struggle came to light when portions of her journal were published in the book Come Be My Light.
What do we do with our doubts or feelings of God’s absence? Those moments may plague some believers more than others. But many faithful believers in Jesus may, at some point in their lives, experience moments or seasons of such doubts.
I’m thankful that Scripture has given us a beautiful, paradoxical prayer that expresses both faith and the lack thereof. In Mark 9, Jesus encounters a father whose son had been demonically tormented since childhood (v. 21). When Jesus said that the man must have faith—“Everything is possible for one who believes”—the man responded, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (vv. 23-24).
This honest, heartfelt plea invites those of us who struggle with doubt to give it to God, trusting that He can fortify our faith and hold on to us firmly amid the deepest, darkest valleys we’ll ever traverse.
When have you wrestled with doubt in your spiritual journey? What spiritual resources helped you hold on to your faith?
Dear Father, sometimes I doubt. Please help me when I struggle to feel Your presence.
INSIGHT
In sending out His disciples to preach about His kingdom, Jesus gave them His authority over impure spirits (Mark 6:7). After three of His disciples saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain (9:2), a distraught father brought a demon-possessed boy to the remaining disciples, but they couldn’t heal him. This lack of miraculous healing was attributed to unbelief (vv. 17-19). The father eventually confessed his lack of faith, “Help me overcome my unbelief!” (v. 24). Jesus told His disciples that “this kind can come out only by prayer” (v. 29) and confronted their failure to pray. In not praying, they had depended on their own authority and not on Jesus’ authority to heal.