A Little Bit of Faith

One of the sweetest scriptures the Lord directed me to during my cancer journey was Mark 9:20-29:

'And they brought the boy unto Him. And when the spirit saw Him, straightway he tore the boy; and he fell on the ground and wallowed about foaming. And He asked his father, "How long is it ago since this came unto him?" And he said, "From childhood. And oftentimes it hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him; but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said unto him, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!" When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him and enter no more into him." And the spirit cried, and rent the boy sorely and came out of him; and he was as one dead, insomuch that many said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could not we cast him out?" And He said unto them, "This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting."'
Two days before I was diagnosed with cancer, my husband and I began a fast. We didn't have a specific reason to fast, we were simply impressed that this was the time. The cancer diagnoses came as a shock, as I'm sure it does to most folks. And then begins the crisis of faith. I'd seen the Lord take away my husband's brain tumor, and somehow it was easier to have faith for him than to have faith for me. I knew God could heal, does heal. But I only had a little bit of faith that He would do it for me.

And then the Lord gave me this scripture. Jesus' reaction to the father was pretty amazing. Jesus didn't fuss the man for not having perfect faith, or complete faith, or enough faith. The guy had just a little faith. There were a whole lot of days when I had just a little faith. It amazed me that Jesus didn't make the guy jump through faith hoops and judge him on the effort. Or tell him to come back when he figured out how to have more faith! Jesus accepted the faith the guy had, small though it was, and healed his son.

Jesus did fuss his disciples for their lack of faith, and they probably had more faith than that father. But the father did something that apparently the disciples had forgotten. He gave what little faith he had to Jesus, and leaned on Jesus to do the rest. What does prayer and fasting do, effectively? For that is what Jesus said was necessary for the disciples to have healed the child. Prayer and fasting focus us on God and our need for Him. There is no room for pride or arrogance when we are on our knees, and our bellies are empty. There is no room for self-sufficiency. Prayer and fasting magnify our dependence on God. We don't come away from it thinking 'well, I'll just take care of this myself'.  We come away from it knowing that we can depend on God, for He is ever faithful, never changing in His love toward us.