Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, James and John after the miraculous encounter with Moses and Elijah to find a crowd around the other disciples. A father had brought his demon possessed son to be healed by Jesus. The disciples had tried without success to cast out the demon, while Jesus was away. As the father told the story of his son to Jesus he asked for help (Mark 9:22)"...Have mercy on us and help us, if you can." Immediately Jesus replied with a question, "What do you mean, 'If I can'?" He went on to say, "Anything is possible if a person believes." The father replied that he did believe but needed help to overcome his unbelief. Jesus then proceeded to cast out the demon and restore the boy to health. It occurs to me that we forget that when we come to the Lord with our needs we are coming to the Source of Life and the Creator of All. He is not an "If I can" God, He is a "I can do all things God". We tend to measure the power of God alongside our puny power. Our power is limited and unreliable. We may be confident that God's power is greater than our own but we may still limit God. We must be confident that God absolutely can meet the need that we are coming to Him with. There may be a reason that God doesn't provide the answer that we are looking for or in the timeframe we want it to take place, but that doesn't mean He isn't able. Like the father in this story we may need to confess that we believe but we need help to overcome our unbelief!
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blessings,
Rob Smith
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