Do you have not-faith?

People from different backgrounds read these blog posts, so it would not be unusual for me to make statements that many would either disagree with, or at least wrestle with. But here is one with which I suspect virtually everyone reading this would agree:

Faith is essential to being a disciple of Jesus

In fact, the Hebrew writer goes so far as to say, without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). So, we all agree we have to have faith, right?

But how much faith do we have to have? Do I have to have complete faith? Do I have to have perfect faith? Do I have to have faith that never waivers? If so, I suspect we just eliminated every reader from those who please God! This seems like such a high bar it is impossible to reach. It feels defeating. But since all of us waiver in our faith from time to time, it seems important to know how Jesus responds to our periodic lack of faith (the scripture uses the negation prefix “a” along with the word for faith, “pistis” to give us “apistis” meaning not faith or unbelief).

The good news is, the perfection of our faith does not seem as important to Jesus as our willingness to admit the imperfection and seek help from Him. In Mark 9 Jesus and His inner circle (Peter, James and John) return from a mountaintop experience we call the transfiguration to find a crowd surrounding his remaining followers who have unsuccessfully tried to free a young boy from demon possession. Jesus’ response to this situation?

“O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? (Mark 9:19, NIV)

So, you would think Jesus just doesn’t tolerate “not-faith”. The thing is, just a few sentences later Jesus tells the boy’s father that help for his boy is possible if he has faith (or believes). The father’s response: Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24, NIV) Not only does Jesus not express disappointment in this man or his “not-faith”, He honors the faith he does have by freeing his son.

What is the difference? In the first situation, the disciples seem to assume their faith was sufficient. They didn’t come to Jesus and confess their weakness and ask for help. They just said that they weren’t able to help the boy. In the second instance, the father was totally honest with Jesus stating that he did have faith, but he also had “not-faith” and he needed help with it!

As we follow Jesus we are going to encounter “not-faith” in three forms: doubt as to the truth of the gospels, scripture, etc.; an inability to totally trust our Lord; and an inability to live faithfully to Him. All of these are forms of “not-faith”. They are, unfortunately, pretty much universal, and the lesson we learn from Mark 9 is that Jesus honors our willingness to admit we struggle with our faith when we say to Him, “Help me overcome my unbelief!”.

We will all struggle with faith, and probably very soon. Jesus did not die for us just to condemn us for the very imperfections that made His death necessary to begin with! His love and faithfulness is constant. He already knows about your faith—or not-faith—and He is ready to help you with it.

Are you ready to ask Him for that help?

Know Jesus and Be Faithful!

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