Between belief and unbelief

I want to come back to the father of the demon possessed man in Mark 9 and his statement.

I believe… Help my unbelief”

This has been prompted by two things Jesus has said. Most immediately, he has responded to the man’s partial expression of trust. The man asks Jesus to heal his son “if you can.” Jesus responds to the effect “what do you mean ‘if you can’?” Of course Jesus can heal. So the man admits to his weakness. He does believe but for whatever reason he is wrestling with it. He is between belief and unbelief.

Secondly he is responding to Jesus’ comment earlier where he has charged the people with being an unbelieving or unfaithful generation. He is in effect acknowledging that Jesus speaks true. He is confessing that he belongs to this unbelieving, unfaithful generation.

And so, I think he fits into this halfway point theme in Mark 8-9. Just as there is a man who sees but doesn’t see, just as Peter gets that Jesus is King but cannot comprehend the cross and just as the disciples could at one point go and heal the sick but at the next point could not cast out a demon, do too this man is at the midpoint between belief and unbelief.

Do you identify with that?

1. It is okay, good even to recognise that you are struggling, that you have doubts, that you don’t get it. It is okay to have arrived at that midpoint.
2. You aren’t meant to stay there. You are not meant to remain between belief and unbelief.

I would encourage you to press on, to get to know Jesus more and to learn that you can completely entrust your life to him.