"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

“Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" Mark 9:24

I love this scripture for a couple reasons. First, I love how absolutely honest and “real” this father is!! I DO believe… but I know that there is still a measure of unbelief in me… please help me Lord with that unbelief! How many of us are truly that honest with ourselves or others let alone with God??

Secondly, this very real statement awakens in ME the awareness of the Unbelief I have in my own heart. I can get pretty delusional thinking I am “all that and a bag of chips” in the “believing” area! But when I read this heart-felt, deeply personal and emotional plea, it resonated in my heart and mind and it makes me more aware of my own unbelief and I too want to cry out “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief!!”

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:16

As I have been listening to the gospels I tend to pick up on certain words each time I listen and recently the word “believe” was my word for the day. As I listened to Jesus’ words I had this sense that our current understanding and definition of the word “believe” was very different than what it meant to Jesus. He would say over and over “Whoever believes…”, “…to those who believe…”, “He who believes…” We can so easily brush past this word, and I have so many times, but I hear Him now imploring me to “get it”! Mostly the context is regarding believing in HIM, believing in His name and in the One who sent Him.

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

I say I “believe in Jesus”, and I truly do mean it, but… Do I really believe in Him the way I need to?? The way HE is asking me to?? As I walk this journey to know God, I find myself believing in Him more and more as I get to “KNOW” Him better… and I can definitively say I believe in Him more now than I used to, but maybe I don’t believe in Him as much as I think I do or need too?? We as Christians say “of course I believe!” And we throw around the word “believe” like it is a normal everyday common thing to say and do… easy peazy, right? But, what did Jesus say would accompany those who “believed”?

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17-18 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matthew 21:22 “Everything is possible for him who believes." Mark 9:23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” Mark 11:23 

So, after reading these scriptures I have to seriously question if I truly do understand what Jesus means by “believe”!! The famous line from the movie “Princess Bride” comes to mind “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”!! I have never cast out demons, laid my hands on sick people and healed them or cast mountains into the sea… I haven’t drank deadly poison or picked up snakes to know if I would survive that, but I do speak in a new tongue and I do have some prayers answered! I have that going for me… which is nice :) But I can’t help feeling like I am still missing something very important.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

So I decided to look up the actual Greek word that is used for “believe” to see if there was something more to this word than meets the eye. Unfortunately, I can’t say there was anything profound or earth shattering in this definition. The Greek word is pisteuō - (pist-yoo'-o) to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual wellbeing to Christ): - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with. In looking at the definition of our English word I did find this little nugget: "faith", "trust" and "believe" in English translations all come from the same Greek root (pisteuo).

So combining these three words; faith, trust and believe, gives the word “believe” a little more meaning, depth and strength in my mind. Sometimes I can “believe” someone and yet not “trust” them, but Jesus asks us to embrace all three of these aspects when we “believe” in HIM. Is my faith, trust and belief in Him whole-hearted and completely without doubt…?

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” John 3:18

If you haven’t figured this out already, most of the scriptures posted here are referring to  believing in Jesus to receive eternal life!! This is kind of an important aspect of believing, don’t you think?? If I really don’t “get” or understand what Jesus means, that could put a serious crimp in my eternal well being!! I think this is worth a deeper looksee, don’t you?!

“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.” John 6:47

Tom brought up a good point in that we should address what it doesn’t mean. It is much more than believing certain facts ABOUT Him!! We can believe He is born of a virgin, the son of God, who died for our sins, and rose again but then not actually believe “IN” Him. If we REALLY believed not only these facts about Him, but believed in Him, I think our lives would look very different. We say we accept them as truth but we don’t act on them. We don’t live as though we believe them! In the co-addiction world we are taught to believe the behavior, not the words. Does my life and behavior reflect my words of belief and trust in Jesus??

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 3:36

For example, let’s look at an everyday aspect of “believing” in God. God says He is our provider and we say we believe in Him but, don’t we rely on our paycheck, bank account, savings and retirement more than Him? We comfort ourselves by saying that God provided all those things so that we could rely on them. But, if we suddenly lost those things how would we feel?? I think we would be gripped with fear and panic, right?! Where is our faith and trust now?? “OMG, how am I going to pay the bills, put food on the table… buy gas for my car so I can get to work!!?? Where is the money going to come from now!!??” Tom says, “It’s easy to trust God when I have money in the bank”! But if we really believed Jesus was our provider, there would be NO FEAR, but only trust and confidence that He will take care of me even without a paycheck, savings and retirement! The fact that we have fear at all in our life reveals our lack of belief in our Lord.

“For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40

So here is a question. What is He asking us to believe in? Believe in what?? In Him, His name, the One who sent Him…? What does that even mean? Do we believe He is just a “good person” with encouraging words? Do we believe He loves us and has good things in mind for us? (I have learned that the word “Good” looks very different to God than it does to me!). Or, do we believe that He is the “Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."? Revelation 1:8  Can we even grasp the depth and the power of those words!? Are they just “words” to us and not transforming “life and truth”? Have I allowed Him to pour His heart and Life into me so much that it pushes all doubt and fear out? Can I truly grasp who He is enough to have the faith, trust and belief that He is asking for??

“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16-17

I don’t have any answers here… I wish I did! But I am still on this journey of growing and learning. I am writing this blog mostly because it is a discovery of my own that I felt I needed to personally address. Do I really understand what believing in Jesus means? I would have to say, I don’t think so!! I don’t have any fear or anxiety over this but I do have a desire to seek God’s face to get to the bottom of this question: What is God’s definition of “believe” and will I allow Him to help me get there??!!

“Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Yes, Lord, she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." John 11:25

Lord, I do believe but please help me overcome my unbelief!!