Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24
The instinct of unbelief runs deep in a believer’s heart. We all have a battle with unbelief, no matter how long we’ve been followers of Jesus. And when Jesus tests our faith, the unbelief that lies hidden in our hearts is exposed.
The same thing happened in the Old Testament. God’s people were in the desert in the time of Moses, and they said: “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” (Psa. 78:19). These were the people God had brought across the Red Sea, but they did not think He could feed them in the desert. It was not that they had forgotten the Lord. These were believing people. They just felt there were certain things even God could not do, and feeding two million people in the desert was one of them.
But God spread a table in the desert for them when He provided manna. God fed a crowd of two million people and sustained them for years. And now, the same God who spread a table in the wilderness is standing, in the flesh, next to Philip, asking him what he thinks can be done to feed this crowd of perhaps 20,000!
Christ will bring you to a place where you feel overwhelmed by need and see the inadequacy of your own resources. The good news, when you don’t know what to do next, is that Jesus already knows what He will do, and what He will do is beyond anything you can even imagine.
Where have you seen this instinct of unbelief recently in your own life?
