“Praying Always” “A Prayer for Faith” – pARESH hALDER
“At once the father of the boy gave an eager, piercing, inarticulate cry with tears, and he said, ‘Lord, I believe! Constantly help my weakness of faith!” Mark 9:24
“God loves it when you and I step into the pitch-black night of this world with the candle of His presence.” Angela Thomas
Have I had an experience in my life where I needed to have my heavenly Father strengthen me?
How has my faith grown as time passed and I learned to trust my Father’s guidance and love in my life?
What does it mean, in practical terms, to have faith in God?
“Never try to have more faith — just get to know God better. And because God is faithful, the better you know Him, the more you’ll trust Him.” John Ortberg
As I have found in my own life, when looking at any specific situation, being able to put the experience into context often helps me to understand what is transpiring. This is the case in the story we briefly read about in our study text today.
Jesus went high on a mountain with three of His closest disciples, Peter, James and John. The Bible relates, “He (Jesus) was transfigured before them and became resplendent with divine brightness…and Elijah appeared there to them, accompanied by Moses, and they were holding protracted conversation with Jesus” (Mark 9: 2-4,
However, while heavenly glory was surrounding Jesus at the top of the mountain, down in the valley, the Bible tells us there was a great disturbance and when Jesus came down from the mountaintop, He astutely observed the commotion and asked this question, “About what are you questioning and discussing with them?” (Mark 9: 16). The line, “with them,” refers to the scribes who were doing the questioning and disputing. This information motivates us to ask, “What was the dispute about?”
In Mark 9: 17-18 we find our answer for we are told that a father had brought his son, who had a “dumb spirit,” to be healed. Here’s how Mark so descriptively portrays the severe condition of the young boy — and these are the words the child’s father used to show how desperate the situation was: “Wherever it (the evil spirit) lays hold of him so as to make him its own, it dashes him down and convulses him, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and he falls into a motionless stupor and is wasting away” (Mark 9: 18).
It is no wonder this father was so intent on trying to find healing for his child. Unfortunately, because of a dispute among themselves, the disciples failed in their attempt to heal the child. And when Jesus arrived on the scene, He, thankfully, stepped in to assist the needy father and very sick child. Jesus began a conversation with the father by asking him, “How long has he (the child) had this?” The father informed Jesus that since the child was a little boy, he had been plagued by this problem which, as the father continued to share with Jesus, had caused the boy to be thrown into a fire and even into water. As the father shared, he believed the desire of the spirit was to kill his child.
It is here when a very important conversation took place between Jesus and the father. It’s a conversation you and I would do well to study for we find that this father spoke to Jesus with such honesty and openness, and this is exactly the way Jesus asks us to come to Him when in desperation we feel we are just not strong enough to bear the challenges we face.
Jesus addressed the father, “You say to Me, if You can do anything? Why all things can be possible to him (her) who believes” (Mark 9: 23, ).
With the failure of Jesus’ disciples, who because of the dissension within their ranks, failed to be able to heal the child, you can see why the dad might be a sceptic. As I thought about this situation I realized that so often when I have problems, I first look to those I think can help me. It is what I call the human element. When in fact, if the human element fails, it only discourages me more. And when Jesus’ disciples couldn’t cast out the evil spirit in this child, it made the father distrust Jesus’ power as well. Jesus pointed out to this man, “You have said ‘if’when you should believe. You should have faith.”
You know what I love about this dad, we are told, “at once the father of the boy gave an eager, piercing, inarticulate cry with tears, and he said, ‘Lord I believe! Constantly help my weakness of faith’” (Mark 9: 24).
This is one of my favorite prayers in the Bible. And maybe you are wondering why I call this a prayer. It is because our communication with our heavenly Father is a conversation with our friend. When you are talking with a real, true friend, one who really cares about the needs of your life and the pain in your heart, words at times become unnecessary. The father’s inarticulate words were expressed with clarity by the cry from his heart and the tears that rolled down his cheeks. Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon calls an expression such as the one this father exhibited, “liquid prayers.”
I know that there have been times in my own life when the hurt was so great that my words were an inadequate expression of what I wanted to say, but my heavenly Father was more than able to translate my “liquid prayers” into words that touched His heart and moved His arm on my behalf.
Today if you find that it is difficult to believe that God is at work in your corner of the world, and if all you can express are the “liquid prayers” of a broken heart, remember this father who reached out with the cry, “I believe, please help me to constantly keep my faith in You.”
As I’ve told you on more than one occasion, I love studying the words penned by Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was such a practical speaker and writer — making God’s Word so understandable. In explaining “faith”, a belief and trust in God to keep His Word to us, Pastor Spurgeon relates faith to something I can understand for many people around our town are avid bicyclists, riding their bikes through Red Rock Country. Several of the sportsmen use, what are called “recumbent” bicycles — it looks as if the rider is almost lying down or reclining as they peddle down the road. With the bicycle as your mental picture, I’d like you to combine this image with Spurgeon’s words: “The Puritans were accustomed to explain faith by the word ‘recumbency.’ It meant leaning upon a thing.”
This was the cry of the “liquid prayer” of the father, “I do believe! Help me to constantly keep on believing in You, leaning upon You, and totally putting all my weight recumbent upon You!” May this prayer be ours today, too!
“The smallest grain of faith is a deathless and incorruptible germ which will yet plant the heavens and cover the earth with harvests of imperishable glory.”
Love, Paresh
PRAYING IN FAITH – A devotional by Paresh Halder
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