Mark 9:17-19 “And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” This episode talks about how God uses us as His instruments sometimes and how we should keep the focus on God and His abilities, instead of us and our abilities. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
O Faithless Generation
Mark 9:17-19 “And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”
The verse starts with a father talking to Jesus about how he son is possessed by a dumb spirit. He asked the disciples to cast it out and they were not able to. The disciples didn’t understand why they couldn’t cast out the spirit. They had been with Jesus for a while now, they had seen all that Jesus could do. I am not certain of what they disciples had done up until this point but I think they had probably performed some miracles before, or they wouldn’t have been so surprised it didn’t work this time. Then Jesus says,”O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” Ouch, that must have hurt. I wasn’t even there but I still can feel the pain of Jesus saying that to them.
It is easy for me to think about what kind of disciple I would have been. I like to tell myself that if I lived back when Jesus lived, my faith would be rock solid. If I got to follow Jesus around and watch him cure people, there would be no shadow of doubt in my mind. I would have followed Him anywhere and done anything for Him. Isn’t it amazing how easy it is for us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and say what we would do if that was us? It is easy to look at the disciples and wonder how they could still doubt when they lived their days surrounded by miracles. When I stop and think about it though, I get it. Jesus had 3 years of ministry. This means that although the disciples did get to spend a lot of time with Jesus, it was at most 3 years. Think about committed you are to your beliefs. All the disciples were adults. Even if they were young adults, that gives them 18 years to form their beliefs. Now Jesus comes along and shakes things up. He helps them to question everything they know to be true. I wonder how easily I would have really jumped on board if I lived back then.
It is easy for me, sitting on this side of Jesus’ coming and say I would follow Him anywhere. However, I can say that because I have the benefit of knowing who Jesus is and what He did for us. I am not sure what I would have thought if I lived back then and I had to get to know Jesus. If I met this man that was turning the world upside down. In the world the disciples lived in, healing wasn’t an everyday thing. Before Jesus, if you got sick, you separated yourself so you wouldn’t get others sick and you were alone. There was no cure for Leprosy, there was no cure for blindness, or for the deaf. Jesus was curing all of this and the disciples got to witness it. We would love to think this means they wouldn’t question, they wouldn’t doubt. However, I am sure it was a lot to take in. Knowing that God can do anything is a huge mind shift. It is not something that usually happens over night. I can imagine that each time the disciples saw Jesus perform a miracle their faith grew a little more. However, I can imagine how being presented with a boy that was possessed by a spirit capable of throwing the boy down and causing convulsing, they might doubt in their abilities to help him.
There it is, right there. They were doubting in themselves. They probably were not doubting this boy could be cured. I am sure they believed that Jesus could cure him. They were probably doubting their own ability to help the boy. I can see how they might doubt they had the ability to save the boy. And you know what, they didn’t have the ability to save the boy. Even if whatever they did had worked, it wouldn’t have been them saving the boy, it would have been God’s power working through them. This is something we can all struggle with. We struggle with the thought that God would use us for something that important. Who are we that God would use us? This is something we ask ourselves often. Do you want to know the answer? You are a child of God and you were made in His likeness and image. That is who you are. You are a son or daughter of the one true King. God is using you because you are available, because you said yes when He asked. You were willing to step out in faith and at least try to be His instruments and that pleases Him. Sometimes we can get it all mixed up in our heads. Instead of focusing on our faith in God and our belief that all things are possible for God, we start to focus on our humanness, our weaknesses, our unworthiness. When we take the focus off of God and put it on ourselves, we aren’t as capable of being used as we are when we are focused on the Lord.
I am telling myself this today as much as I am telling you. I have some pretty big prayers into the Lord. I have asked him to cure a loved one of MS and a friend of a friend of ALS. These are diseases that have no cure. These are diseases that can be awful and claim peoples’ lives far too early. They also severely limit their quality of life at times. The woman suffering from ALS can no longer walk and she has little boys to take care of. I am praying hard for a healing for both of them. I don’t doubt for a second that God could do it. And yet, I still find that doubt lurking in my mind that this is too much. It’s too hard. I can hear the Lord telling me, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”
I find it such a weird thing that I know for sure God could do it and yet I have doubt that He will do it. Lord I believe, help my unbelief. I know God is a mystery and that we are not meant to know everything. I know God’s ways are better than our ways and His thought higher than our thoughts. Today the Holy Spirit seems to be telling me, that I am doubting my ability to cure these women. I am worried I am not praying the right way, or asking the right way and therefore they will not be cured. What I feel the Holy Spirit wants me to hear today, and wants me to pass on, is that it is not my fault. I don’t have the ability to cure anyone. If God wants to cure these ladies, He can do it through me or anyone else regardless of what they do. I don’t have to do anything perfectly for it to happen. I have been taking the focus off of God and putting in on myself. I need to keep focusing on God and His power and His ability and not my own.
Have you been doing this lately? Have you been trying to solve things for others and relying on yourself instead of the Lord. The Holy Spirit want you to know too, that it’s not your fault either. If your prayers are not being answered it is not because you are praying wrong, or not praying enough, or not having enough faith. We are not responsible for answering our prayers. God is the only one that can make our prayers fruitful. All we need to do is ask with expectant faith and He will answer. It is also important to remember that No is an answer. God doesn’t always say yes. As much as we would love for the answer to always be yes, this isn’t the case. I wish I knew why He didn’t always cure people. I am sure He has a plan and I know His plan is best. That doesn’t make it easier when our loved ones are sick, however, it does take the pressure off of us to think we need to be perfect for our prayers to be answered. God said ask and you shall receive. He didn’t say, pray perfectly and you shall receive. The Lord loves us, He is hearing our prayers and He is answering each and every one of the. It may not be in the time frame we would like, it may not be the answer we would like, however, He is answering them.
Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we believe help our unbelief. Lord, help us to keep our focus on you and not on ourselves. Help us to focus on your power and your capabilities instead of focusing on all we are incapable of doing. Lord, we know you are amazing and you can do amazing things. Help us to believe that you could use us to help you do those amazing things. Help us to know that we are your children and made in your likeness and image. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen!
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!