Of faith and humility

The gospel today has a lot of words worth remembering, or what other people say “quotable quotes.” However, i believe the gospel is reminding us to have faith in Christ. First, Jesus tells that the people do not have faith. They say that it makes it more difficult to do God’s work if you are surrounded by people who don’t have faith. “O faithless generation, how long should I be with you” Jesus was sad and frustrated by the people’s lack of faith.

He again showed how important faith is. He told the boy’s father that is it possible, that everything is possible to one who has faith. The father’s response is a very inspiring one – to come to Jesus humbly accepting that what we have may not be enough, and asking him to help us. Maybe the faith is not yet there, but it was a sign of surrender to Jesus.

But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."
Jesus said to him,
"'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith."
Then the boy's father cried out, "I do believe, help my unbelief!"

Lastly, Jesus told the disciples in private that some spirit could only be driven out by prayer.

When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private,
"Why could we not drive the spirit out?"
He said to them, "This kind can only come out through prayer."

Probably the disciples were not praying enough. Maybe they did not have complete faith in Jesus’ power. Maybe they were praying for the wrong things. Whatever they did was not working, but Jesus did not scold them for it, and he told them in private.

Do we have complete faith in God? Do we let other people affect our faith? Do we let the external surroundings dictate our faith or how we should act? Do we really believe what Jesus said, that anything is possible to one who has faith, or do we limit God’s power based on our own human limitations? Do we continuously pray to improve our prayer life and our faith, or are we complacent that our prayers are always enough for God? Are we humble enough to accept that we sometimes don’t fully believe in God’s power, and ask for His grace to have more faith in Him?

May we be inspired and reminded how important and powerful faith is. May we also be humble enough to know and ask God to increase our faith, to help us in our unbelief.