by Mark Gambill

 

In the dairy aisle of your local supermarket, you will find a product called “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.” Looks like butter, tastes like butter, spreads like butter. But guess what? It’s not butter.

 

Here’s what’s in “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”: Purified water, soybean oil, palm and palm kernel oil, lecithin (soy), natural flavor, vinegar, Vitamin A Palmitate and beta-carotene (color). Additionally, there are emulsifiers and food additives that help mix substances that normally separate to hold it all together. So, we have a bunch of chemicals mixed together to make “not butter” look and act like butter. Just what everyone needs; more chemicals in their diets!

 

We want to believe. Sometimes so badly that we’ll suspend logic, reason, and common sense. Robert Ripley understood this. He would draw cartoons for The New York Globe in a feature called “Champs and Chumps” originally involving incredible sports feats when it premiered in 1918. They became so popular that Ripley began adding items unrelated to sports, and in October 1919, he changed the title to “Believe It or Not” and from there, Ripley built an entertainment empire which included a radio and TV show, multiple books, computer games, and museums.

 

This past Sunday in our “Overcomer” teaching series, our senior minister, Brad Wilson, talked about various reasons why we struggle to believe. You can check out that teaching here. During his ministry, Jesus was constantly confronted with people who did not believe in him, his miracles, or his mission. The scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, chief priests, ruling Romans, people in his hometown, the rich young ruler, false teachers, many Jews, even his own disciples (“Doubting” Thomas) were corrected by Jesus as he challenged everyone he met to believe in him.

 

Jesus Contends with Unbelief

In the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has to deal with a belief, or more to the point, an unbelief situation. He had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John.

 

“And when they came back to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. And He asked them, ‘What are you disputing with them?’ And one person from the crowd answered Him, ‘Teacher, I brought You my son, because he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes stiff. And I told Your disciples so that they would cast it out, but they could not do it.’

“And He answered them and said, ‘O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!’ And they brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, the spirit immediately threw him into convulsions, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth.

“And He asked his father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’

“And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!’

“But Jesus said to him, ‘“If You can?” All things are possible for the one who believes.’

“Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’

“When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again!’

“And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, ‘He is dead!’ But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him, and he got up. When He came into the house, His disciples began asking Him privately, ‘Why is it that we could not cast it out?’

“And He said to them, ‘This kind cannot come out by anything except prayer’” (Mark 9:14-29, NASB).

 

The first thing we notice here is Jesus’ disappointment. He had been teaching, preaching, and performing miracles for three years and yet he was again faced with another example of unbelief. Jesus asks, “If I can?” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Really? Here we go again with the skepticism.”

 

From the description in the biblical narrative, modern medicine would say the boy was likely suffering from a form of epilepsy and Dad had no doubt tried every healer and remedy to no avail. However, Jesus, the Great Physician, diagnosed the boy with something else—a demonic spirit. The medical professionals of the day were not equipped to deal with that—but Jesus was.

 

Unbelieving Belief

The dad in this story found himself in a bit of a conundrum. He brought the boy to Jesus in an act of faith, but then he turned around and basically said he wasn’t sure he had enough faith for Jesus to heal his son.

 

We can identify with Dad because we’re like him in a lot of ways. We believe in God, but in the face of adversity, all of the sudden we wonder where our faith went or why we simply don’t have enough faith to trust God to work his will in our lives.

 

And just like the father in this story, we need to say to God, “I know I don’t have perfect faith and the strength of my faith waxes and wanes. I can’t let doubt overpower my faith. Help me to stand strong from the attacks of the adversary. I believe. I have faith. Help me to have even more.”

 

Seems like an oxymoron, believing unbelief or perhaps, unbelieving belief.

 

The interesting thing here is that a person who doesn’t believe, who has no faith, would not ask for more. They don’t need more faith. They don’t believe in the first place.

 

Scripture tells us that our God will give us all that we need, including more faith (see Luke 11:9-12; James 1:5-8). “Help my unbelief” is both an expression of faith and at the same time an admission that we can’t do it on our own.

 

Believers understand that one can never have enough faith and we should aspire to perfect faith, but when in doubt, we can count on God to do what is best for us and supply us with the faith we need to carry on and overcome. Believe it or not!

 

With over 35 years of business experience, Mark Gambill runs the East Region Real Estate Division for Albertsons; has three post-graduate degrees; has taught for over 30 years at various universities; and has been a member of Christ’s Church for over 25 years. He and his wife Karen have two sons, John and Matt, and three dogs, Winnie, Lia, and Tater.