Episode 17: Help Thou My Unbelief

In this episode Saso and Ben talk about the to topic if unbelief. Do you struggle with unbelief? If so, you are not alone.

1. Incredulity; the withholding of belief; as, unbelief is blind.

2. Infidelity; disbelief of divine revelation.

3. In the New Testament, disbelief of the truth of the gospel, rejection of Christ as the Savior of men, and of the doctrines he taught; distrust of God’s promises and faithfulness, etc. Matthew 13:58. Mark 16:14. Hebrews 3:12. Romans 4:20.

4. Weak faith. Mark 9:24.

Websters 1828

Help my unbelief!

Mark 9:17-29

Anyone in this position as this man, we would desire God’s healing of their son who was being held captive by a spirit. We want to believe but there comes a time when we need to ask God to help our unbelief. The times where we are discouraged, or we have asked for many years with no change that we can see.

In the CEV version it says “I do have faith, Please help me to have even more”. It seems as if this man was humbled before Jesus and was trying to articulate that although he believed, his faith was inadequate. There are many times when our faith is inadequate, especially when God makes it apparent.

The sin of unbelief is truly the root of all sins.

Is it not a sin for a creature to doubt the word of its Maker? Is it not a crime and an insult to the Divinity, for me, an atom, a particle of dust, to dare to deny his words? Is it not the very summit of arrogance and extremity of pride for a son of Adam to say, even in his heart, “God I doubt thy grace; God I doubt thy love; God I doubt thy power?” Oh! sirs believe me, could ye roll all sins into one mass,-could you take murder, and blasphemy, and lust, adultery, and fornication, and everything that is vile and unite them all into one vast globe of black corruption, they would not equal even then the sin of unbelief. This is the monarch sin, the quintessence of guilt; the mixture of the venom of all crimes; the dregs of the wine of Gomorrah; it is the A1 sin, the master-piece of Satan, the chief work of the devil.

Charles Spurgeon

Essentially the sin of unbelief is the equivalent of us saying, God you are not enough and I don’t trust you. We would never shake our fist at God and say that, but if we are honest, our actions portray it. It’s our beliefs that fuels our desire for sin and it is our beliefs are formed in our minds. The mind is battleground for spiritual warfare. It’s in our minds that we form beliefs and it’s also in our minds where we decide what we believe and how we will behave and act according to those beliefs.

James 1:14

I do what I do and say what I say because I want what I want. I want what I want because I believe what I believe about God, about His Word, and about myself.

Willie Partin

This theme of unbelief starts all the way back in the garden when Adam and Eve chose to believe the lie of satan. In fact it’s this one act that sent all of humanity into spiritual death.

Genesis 3:4-5

And they fell for it. They believed the lie!

We see unbelief with the profit Elijah. He had literally just called down fire from heaven to consume the alter and killed 400 profits of Baal. Then Jezebel threatened Elijah and he ran.

1 Kings 19:4

Numbers 20:11-12

God told Moses to speak to the rock but in his fit of frustration and anger he struck the rock. Not just once but twice. God pronounced judgment on Moses and didn’t let him step foot into the promise land. You might think thats harsh, but the point is that Moses in his unbelief disobeyed God. 

Basically any sin we fall into, whether it be pride, anxiety, fear, bitterness or anger, its all rooted in unbelief. Our acts of unbelief are sin because essentially we are saying God is not enough and we need something more.

Hindrances due to unbelief

Matthew 13:54-58

Matthew 17:20

We are all guilty of putting limits on God who has no limits, and we do this because we have unbelief. We say, that person will never get saved or there is no hope for that individual, or I will never get victory over my besetting sin. These are all barriers of unbelief we put up in our lives.

They marveled and were impressed by His teaching but they did not believe Him to be the son of God. They reduce Him to the carpenter’s son and He did not mighty works because of their unbelief. What has God not done in your own life due to your unbelief?

Mark 16:10-14

Jesus reproved the 11 because of their unbelief and hardness of heart. It seemed that were all from the state of Missouri (The show me state).  

Matthew 9:24

Unbelief can sometimes wear on us. Becoming a Christian sometimes complicates things even more. However, God and His grace is sufficient. That said, the Christian walk is a battle. The Apostle Paul eluded to this as he gave Timothy his final charge before he was executed. 

2 Timothy 4:7

According to this verse, the Christian walk is a battle, but the end goal is to keep the faith. Are we going to fail? Of course we are. But God’s grace is more than our biggest weakness, bigger than our biggest fault, bigger than our besetting sins. 

We need to learn to battle. That said, it is super important to read your bibles, because we get to learn about God through filling our minds with knowledge about Him. It is also important to pray because you are talking to God building a relationship.

1 Colossians 1:9-10

Interestingly enough Paul was praying for the brethren at Colossae. He prayed they would be filled with knowledge of God.

Perhaps we don’t pray because we don’t believe God will hear or we believe that God will not answer.

How many blessings have you missed out on because you don’t pray because due to unbelief?

Be vigilant about guarding against a heart of unbelief

Hebrews 3:12

John 12:27-29

Thomas walked with Him but yet needed to touch Him in order to believe. We may hate on Thomas but what about our own unbelieving heart? A heart of unbelief will take us away from the living God and leads us to worldly teaching and beliefs.

The bible tells us to guard ourselves because we have an adversary who will attack us and if our faith is weak, we will not be able to withstand the attack. We will fall into the trap of believing lies. 

Ephesians 6:16

This is yet another reason why it’s important for us to know our scriptures. Our beliefs must be driven by God’s word otherwise we will buy into the lies of the world. Even our own minds and hearts are deceitful.

Psalm 3:5

Matthew 15:19

The greatest weapon to guard against unbelief is God’s word.

Those who choose to believe

Matthew 9:20-23

Matthew 9:27-33

Would your faith open your eyes or would you remain blind?

Do you have unbelief?

Do you believe in the God of the impossible?

God is able to do that which has not been seen if we will only believe 

Matthew 8:7-10

Do you have this type of faith?

The account of the centurion is an amazing example of faith especially when Jesus affirmed his faith. What about Abraham when he was told to sacrifice his only son? What about Noah building the arc? What about Joesph and all his trials? What about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego standing up to Nebachadnezar and dancing in the fiery furnace. Or what about Ruth approaching the King or Nehemiah making his request to the King? What about Moses leading Israel out of Egypt? We have these tremendous examples. However, we must not compare ourselves to them. We must simply obey God.

Ultimate unbelief will lead us to eternal damnation 

John 3:18-19

Mark 16:16

We must compare scripture with scripture as far as baptism but here it speaks of unbelievers be damned

What is your belief in today?

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

Have you put your belief in Him?

Do you have a spirit of unbelief?

Would your faith open your eyes like the blind or are you more like Thomas? 

May our prayer be, “Help thou mine unbelief.”