Believers?

22“It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes." Mark 9"22-23...."There's a reason we're called believers. We're supposed to believe God." Chris Tiegreen

Someone said of the Jews of Christ's time that, "they didn't believe the God that they said they believed in." How often are we like them today? How often do we not believe the God we say we believe in? How often, in the midst of the crisis, the need, the trial, do we find ourselves giving in to doubt, fear, and unbelief?

In the Scripture from Mark 9, a father has brought his demon possessed son to Jesus. His son had long been tormented by a demon who literally caused the boy to throw himself into fires. He had come to Jesus, which indicates that he did have some degree of faith in Him, but his question shows that he shared many of the same doubts that we can find ourselves harboring. So overwhelmed was he by the degree of severity of his son's condition that his faith was also infused with unbelief. He asked Jesus that if He could heal his son, would He? Jesus' answer was a gentle rebuke that likely all of us have felt before, and may be feeling now. He simply said, "If I can?" When it comes to His power, His authority, His infinite ability, Christ commands us to harbor no "if's" It needed to be implanted in the father's heart, and ours as well, that "all things are possible to them who believe."

Missionaries who have served in what we would call "third world areas" have said that they cannot tell a great deal of what they have witnessed God doing in those places to western listeners. So miraculous are His doings that we in the west would be very incredulous, and in some cases, outright scoffers. Why is this? A great part of the answer is found in that we have been conditioned by our culture to depend upon our own rational thinking and reasoning. We are so dependent upon our natural senses and instincts that we struggle to accept accounts, supernatural accounts, that cannot be explained by rational thought. That kind of thinking has infused the western church. All things are possible to him who believes, but trusting upon such a promise is extremely difficult for those who have a limited range of possibilities in their thinking. So many of us in the church have placed distinct limitations upon what we believe He can and will do. As a result, we've become primarily dependent upon the same things the world has. Science, medicine, government. All have a place, but all are subservient to Almighty God. We, the church, need to break free of this bondage. There are no limitations and boundaries concerning what our Father can do....except those that we place upon Him in our faith. We believe little so we experience little.

Chris Tiegreen writes, "We need to pray audacious prayers that would embarrass us if God didn't answer them." How many such prayers have you and I prayed of late? The Apostle Paul spoke of being willing to be seen as a fool concerning His belief in the power and might of his God. Too few of us are so willing. We don't want to be ridiculed by the unbelievers, so we adopt a degree of unbelief ourselves. And like the people of Christ's hometown, we see few miracles because of our unbelief.

May we, the church, take up Tiegreen's challenge. May we dare to pray such audacious prayers, tempered with His wisdom, discernment, and understanding of course. We cannot ask Him to do something when the root motive is our own selfishness, but when we know and are feeling His leading to pray for something that may seem beyond impossible, may we boldly do so. In other lands where the church has few resources, amazing things are happening and explosive growth is taking place. Those coming to Him have a simple faith that believes He can do anything. Here, where our resources are so abundant, we see so little growth, and even fewer miracles. May it no longer be so. The need is desperate. May we be believers who believe Him. May we truly believe that all things really are possible when we believe the God we say we believe in.

Blessings,

Pastor O