Help Mine Unbelief

Nobody prays the words of today's verse unless they are cornered. We are a little quick to admire the father in Mark 9 for being honest, as if he had chosen to speak frankly. It is easier to admire him than to pray the way he prayed. His son was on the ground in front of him, foaming at the mouth, and he had already tried the people who should have been able to help: "I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not."

So what he brings to Jesus is worn out and careful: "if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." Jesus picks up that "if" and hands it back to him: "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." Then "straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

We have often prayed the confident half of that prayer while believing only a little of it, and we have called the gap reverence. We keep the second half to ourselves in case somebody hears it.

Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief, and take our prayer at the strength it really has. In that chapter the boy was healed while his father's faith was still that small and that honest. Later, in private, the disciples asked why they had failed, and Jesus told them that this kind could come out only by prayer. His answer was about leaning on God, which is exactly what the father had done. The power was His all along, and it still is.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 263 is Light Breaking Forth (Isaiah 58:8).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two