Daily Reading: (Mark 9:23-25):
“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, He rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
“If you can”. Those are three deadly words that are robbers of grace.
In the middle of their drama, they were amazed to find the grace of God with them and they ran to receive Him joyfully. There is a word for all of us who will go through some extremely difficult, dramatic times in our lives. The grace you need to overcome whatever it is that you face is found in Christ Jesus who is with you now, receive Him joyfully (Mark 9:15).
“So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth” (Mark 9:20). You would think that when the boy was brought to Jesus, he would have instantly been better and the symptoms would have stopped. But the same thing that had been happening to the boy continued. Jesus’ nine disciples couldn’t do anything for the boy and here at this moment in the presence of Jesus it appears the boy is not doing any better.
“Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him” (Mark 9:21-22).
The father thinks back to how long his son has suffered. The past has made the man believe that his future will be no different. As believers, we can look at our past, and have our past tell us something different, that in Christ, everything has changed (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
God’s grace and His favor is upon your life, believe and receive the grace that you need to overcome whatever it is that you face.
Verse 22b “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
Now Jesus has an issue with three words that are robbing this man from receiving the compassionate grace of God.
In the Gospels, Jesus consistently affirms those who express faith and rebukes those who express doubt and unbelief. The leper He healed is a great example. This man said to Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). This is a declaration of faith, and it moved Jesus to a compassionate response of healing.
But the father of this afflicted boy said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us”. “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” The statement for your life in Christ that will lift you up in your darkest days and give you the greatest hope in your most trying times, is when we properly understand this verse in the Greek. “Can you believe that all things are possible to Him [Jesus] who is always believing?” It’s not about how well or how much you can believe, but who you will believe. Jesus is the only one whose faith is always constant and never wavers. His faith never fails! And if you can believe that all things are possible for Jesus who never doubts, never wavers, then you are on your way to your miracle!
When there’s a problem, a strategy of the devil is to get your attention onto fixing the thing that’s not broken. If Christ lives in you, then there’s nothing wrong with your faith. But you still might have a problem with unbelief. God’s will is to heal, but unbelief will limit the power of God in your life.
Don’t worry about your faith, you already have enough to move your mountain, apply the hammer of God’s word to your unbelief and be ready to receive your miracle.
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