Trust More – Worry Less

“Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” – Mark 9:23-24


If anyone were to ask you if you had faith in God, what would you say? 

Many of us would dogmatically say that we do.  We’ve trusted Him with our eternity, and we’ve found security and peace in knowing that when we die, we will be with Him in Heaven.  Yet I believe for many of us, that trust is more like trusting in an insurance policy to pay off than trusting in a tight rope not to break.  When you walk a tight rope, you step out on nothing but faith.  You believe that the rope will hold you up.  The truth is, if we fully trusted in God, more of us would be walking the tight rope in life.  More of us would be seeking our dreams with a rooted faith that God would not fail us, and living out the expectation of answered prayer.

I believe the problem is one of logic.  We want to understand how God can accomplish things before we can believe in them.  Far too often I’ve prayed asking God to do things, and then told Him exactly how I’d like it done because that’s how I could perceive it being completed.  But as Isaiah 55:8 says, His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.  We’ve tried to fit God into a box of our own understanding.  And therein the believable boundaries of the box, we can trust God, because we can believe for the possible.

But what about believing for the impossible?  What about believing God to do the things we cannot dictate a means and method for completion?  We’ve all read Luke 1:37, which says that with God nothing is impossible.  We’ve read Matthew 17:20, which says if we have faith even as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for us.  Yet, while we claim to believe the Bible, front cover to back cover, and we claim to have faith in God, our lives are riddled with worry and doubt.  We pray for our finances, and worry that we won’t meet our bills.  We pray for our health, and stay focused on the sickness.  We pray for our children, and continue to spend sleepless nights worrying about them. 

If there’s one thing God has taught me in life, it’s that every trial I face has a greater purpose, a lesson to be learned, a spiritual strength to be earned.  Our faith is strengthened by being exercised in trials.   What if the things we worry about are truly not the issue, but the issue is God’s desire to woo us into trusting Him more and worrying less?

In Mark 9 we read the story of the young mute boy who was demon possessed, and the spirit that possessed him often threw him into the fire or water to try to destroy him.  Or, is this story about the father of the young boy, who needed to believe more?  Is this story about the disciples, who as the story is told in Matthew 17, Jesus tells that they could not deliver the young boy because of their lack of belief in God? 

In Mark 9 Jesus tells the devoted father, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”  Did you get that?  All things - as in nothing omitted - and no disclaimer.  All things are possible to you – with a four word condition: “If you can believe”.  The father of the young boy answers Jesus with a simple statement.  He said “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

While we each believe in God for some things, we also carry a factor of unbelief.  It may be to a single area of our life, a single situation, or it may be overwhelming our entire life.  While we should pray for the issue and problems we face, let us also pray, “Lord, help my unbelief!”  It is within the unbelief that worries live and rob us of the peace that is ours in Jesus Christ.  Trust God more - worry less.

“Lord, help my unbelief!”