Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

The Holy Spirit has inspired me to encourage Honest, Open, Transparent confessions about our faith struggles.

In Today’s scripture, Mark 9:17-24 (NLT) we read…
[17] One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. [18] And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” [19] Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” [20] So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. [21] “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy. [22] The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” [23] “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” [24] The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

Consider…
There are times in our faith walk that we struggle to completely trust God. The struggle may be caused by a hopeless medical diagnosis, or the loss of a job, or a wayward child, or the disappointing fall of a revered spiritual leader. For whatever reason, sometimes external events trigger internal faith struggles.

Today’s scripture captures one of these faith struggles. Let’s examine the facts.

The first stresser we’ve identified is the father had a demon possessed son. As a fellow father, I understand the struggle with helplessly witnessing struggling children. Children that you can’t, and won’t give up on, but are illequipped to help.

Which leads to the next faith stresser, that is being let down by the people you go to for help. Notice in the passage the father took his son to Jesus’ disciples for help. This reminds me of people who go to the church for help with their spiritual dilemmas, only to see no change in their situation. For example, a person in dire financial straits may reach out to an affluent church for financial assistance, only to be embarrassingly questioned about their life choices and denied. These types of encounters can lead to faith faltering struggles.

The Holy Spirit used this to emphasize we must do what we can to help others unconditionally like Jesus. Like 1 John 3:16-18 (NLT) says…
[16] We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. [17] If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? [18] Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

Along with these verses, the Holy Spirit reminded me of when Jesus gave His life for us, which is found in Romans 5:6-8 (NLT), which testifies…
[6] When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. [7] Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. [8] But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

The Holy Spirit is emphasizing we’re expected to help, not judge, others in need like Jesus did.

He reiterated this point with Jesus’ words in John 3:17 (NLT)
[17] God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Reading that makes me think of seeing a drowning person from our boat, equipped with a life preserver ring, and choosing to criticize someone for being unable to swim, rather than tossing the life preserver into save. Ironically, those same critical judging people in the next breath want to tell the drowning person that they need Jesus. I pray we’re not one of those people.

Returning from the Holy Spirit’s detour, we next see how our bumpy road of struggles can shape our engagement with Jesus.

I imagine this father sheepishly said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him.”, because he ended his initial plea with, “I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” This makes me think the hopeless father was asking Jesus for help as a last gasp.

This reminds me of John 5:2-7 (KJV)…
[2] Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. [3] In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. [4] For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. [5] And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? [7] The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

Far too often, we tell Jesus all about our struggles, when He’s asking us if we want to be healed.

Which brings us to the pivot point of this helpless father’s encounter with Jesus, that we can learn from.

At the end of verse 22, the father said to Jesus, “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

And in the following verses we read the key…
[23] “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” [24] The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

The Holy Spirit is emphasizing, anything is possible if we believe. But what I appreciate the most, is this man’s honest, open, and transparent response to Jesus.

Don’t miss it, this man saying “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”, was confession of struggling faith. By struggling faith I mean, Lord I am coming to despite my doubts, help me believe.”

I believe it’s in our real raw confessions of our crisis of faith, that God’s grace is triggered towards us. The Holy Spirit showed me this with the familiar scripture, 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (NLT)…
[8] Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. [9] Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

Normally I focus on the sufficiency of God’s grace, when I read these verses, but today the Holy Spirit is emphasizing Jesus says…
“My power works best in weakness.”

There it is, our crisis of faith or faith struggles, are the weaknesses that allow God’s power to work most effectively.

This takes me back to a drowning person, it’s when they stop struggling and give up, that a lifeguard can effectively save them.

You see, struggling faith causes us to stress and strain to find solutions in our own strength and wisdom, but when we let go and let God, that’s when things start happening.

So today, stop struggling and instead be honest, open, and transparent with God about your doubts of whether He can or will help you. Because it’s when you let go of your fake faltering faith, that God will flex His mighty power and change you and/or your situation.

Bonus thought: Being Honest, Open, and Transparent about our faith struggles to God, is an act of faith itself.

Today’s song is…
Let Go

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)