Last week I was looking through all of my “healing” scriptures for inspiration and to build up my faith. If Jesus is our healer, and most of us acknowledge that he is, then why is my knee bothering me so much?
You might not have expected me to have chosen today’s verse out of a list of healing verses but as soon as I saw it, I knew why I had included it on the list. It covers everything.
Matthew 21: 22 is a powerful statement, and it is the answer to everything we need. It was spoken by Jesus who would never lie to us and cannot be wrong. So, what gives? Few of us would say we receive all things we ask for in prayer. Since I hadn’t received what I asked for then it must be a problem with my belief. So, like the boy’s father in Mark 9: 24, I cry out, “Help my unbelief!”
It sounds circular but it seems to me that the answer to having not received my answer to prayer is more prayer. Jesus is still our all in all so if my believer is broken, then I need him to fix it. I am not the answer to my problem, he is.
There is another aspect to believing and it is reflected in the father’s exclamation in Mark 9: 24. He told Jesus about his son’s plight and then said, “But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Jesus responded, “If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” The father’s full response to Jesus was, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” The father was not without belief, but he understood that the answer to his prayer was in his belief. He perceived there was a deficiency in his belief. Was it not enough? Was it the wrong kind? In his own mind, had he made the deliverance of his son contingent upon something else? It really didn’t matter, it’s enough that he knew who could help him.
I think sometimes we believe, just like the father in the story, but our belief hasn’t fully reached our spirits yet. We believe with all the mental faculty we possess, but our hearts haven’t fully engaged. There is a remnant of doubt in our hearts that conflicts with the belief in our minds. When we take this issue to Jesus, he can help us believe in our hearts. Mental recognition and acceptance of the promise is the first step, but eventually for faith to arise we need the belief to be absorbed in our hearts, our spirits. When the father in the story in Mark realized his belief wasn’t perfected, he asked Jesus for help in believing. The end result was that the boy was restored. Jesus will help us too.
If you need healing, Jesus is the healer and he is willing. Our website has a 65 day resource specifically for healing, and it’s free. Visit IveyMinistries.org or click here.