Devotional Thoughts for Today
Mark 9:17-27
And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
Desperation is usually seen as a bad thing. Whether in an interview, or on a first date, it’s often looked down upon as a repulsive quality. It can cause a person to act outside of their normal character and even take extreme measures. For this reason, the world teaches us to never show our desperation as it can reek of pity and weakness. Yet, here in this passage, we see how the desperate faith of a father leads him to Jesus. And from this account, we are reminded an important aspect about faith.
In our passage, the father has tried everything in his power for his son. He’s even turned to the disciples of Jesus who have done such miracles in the past. Yet, all have failed and it’s now just him and Jesus. In his utter hopelessness and despair, he musters up this desperate cry, “I believe; help my unbelief!” This simple prayer captures the perfect combination of faith and confession: It was faith in that he knew Jesus had the power to heal; yet, it was a confession of his own weakness for the unbelief that still existed in his heart. Though his desperation began in the acceptance of his weakness, it became the assurance of his faith in Christ. When we direct our desperation toward Him, it produces faith—the faith that God seeks and responds to. This in turn leads us to cry out to Him with some of the most raw prayers like that of the father. And to this Jesus responds, “Bring them to me, no matter how impossible the situation may be, bring them to me”.
Spend some time reflecting on this. When was the last time you were desperate for the Lord? Like the heart of this father, may we be honest before Jesus, asking that He would help the areas of unbelief in our lives. When we think about the greatest revivals or even greatest movements in history, all of these were driven by a desperate desire for change.
Prayer: Whatever it takes, Lord, decrease my proneness to wander from You by keeping me desperate for You (adapted from Jon Bloom). I confess of my own apathy and lack of zeal towards you. Revive me once again; may I be desperate for You once again. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 16
If you were to ask me in college what my future plans were, I could’ve offered you my 5 year, 10 year, and maybe even my 15 year plans; and each plan had milestones to track my progress.
In Your God is too Small, J.B. Philips describes the inadequate conceptions Christians have of God. Here are a few that he mentions: resident policeman—God has simply become a moral conscience that tells us what’s good and bad for us; parental hangover—God is a projection of our relationship with our parents; and grand old man—God is an old man much like our grandpa who is irrelevant and distant to us. Philips notes how these misconceptions unconsciously affect not only the way we see God, but also how we respond to Him. In summary, these misconceptions have made our God too small.
Science writer Robert Lee Hotz found that “talking about ourselves—whether in a personal conversation or social media— triggers the same sensation of pleasure in the brain as food or money.” In fact research showed how self-disclosure could in some cases be even be more rewarding than the latter two. In other words, even science shows how much we love talking about ourselves because we want to be known. It is no wonder that social media platforms, such as Instagram, have become so successful, because they serve as personalized galleries of our accomplishments for others to see.
No parent wishes to see their children suffer. But every parent knows that there are moments in which suffering is necessary for growing—especially when it comes to disobedience. As parents, it takes a great amount of patience and love to allow children to face the consequences of their actions. It seems even after many warnings, children always want to learn the hard way. And as children we hate our parents because of this, but we learn to appreciate these moments later in life as growth lessons for us.
Growing up, our schools taught us the dangers of peer pressure, often in the context of substance abuse and other unwanted behaviors. Sigmund Freud studied how an individual succumbs to the peer pressure of a group: his research showed that as individuals feel a sense of worth and belonging to the larger group entity, they will forego their own conscious personalities for the sake of the group. Surprisingly, much of this happens at the sub-conscious level, which makes it difficult to realize the influences of peer pressure; and so this is why peer pressure can be so dangerous—who you surround yourself with is who you will become.
The AMI QT Devotionals from June 4-10 are written by Andy Kim. Andy, a graduate of Northwestern University and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Div.) currently serves as a staff at Radiance Christian Church in San Francisco. And this past November, Andy got married to Jane.
In an interview with Christian missionaries, Mahatma Gandhi expressed his affections toward Christ, but also his dislike of Christians. From this interview we may have heard the phrase, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians for your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sadly, there are moments where I see fellow believers and I too have the same judgments of their lack of Christ-likeness. And for Jeremiah, this was the context in which he was ministering to the people of God.
I think one of the hardest things in ministry (not just as a full-time pastor but in any aspect of relational ministry), is when you know through prayer and discernment that someone is not walking in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, and yet this person is either unwilling or oblivious to see their errors. Especially in sensitive situations, it’s often difficult to come right out and speak the truth to them, let alone have them listen to you in the first place. It’s almost as if you are stuck in the middle between God and the individual.
As my wife and I prepare for our first child, I have noticed how much more attentive I am of how other people interact with their own kids—how they speak to the child, what they let their kids get away with or what they don’t, or the countenance of the parent when interacting with their child. If you were to ask me how I feel about preparing for our first child, I’d confess that I’m honestly not sure, because the thought of raising a child—let alone raising a child well—is so beyond my understanding that I am not sure what to think.
The past couple of weeks, my wife’s nephew and her family were in town. He’s only 4 years old and still trying to wrap his mind around what it means that I am his aunt’s husband. First he had to understand my wife’s relationship to his grandmother, and then from there, my wife’s relationship to me. He then turned to my father in-law and asked him who his mother was, to which he responded,