Mark 9:22-23
“Often times it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believe.”
What of Today’s Verse…
In our Lord’s life there was no divorce between the life hidden in God and a ready response to the call of human need. As in Raphael’s great picture of the Transfiguration, which combines the scenes of the mountain, and the valley on the one canvas, so must it always be in true life? There must be the systole and the diastole–the heart must drive the blood to be aerated in Heaven’s ozone, and then pulsate to the extremities of hand and foot.
How many there are who seem to be possessed with evil spirits which are wrecking health and peace, and how many make the mistake of this man in bringing their relatives or friends to disciples who as yet have not been baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit, and have not entered into the secret place of power. Of course it is not possible for such to afford any real help, and the demon laughs them to scorn! We must learn our own inability to deal with the forces of evil that are sweeping through the world, unless we have received power from on high (Luk_10:17, Luk_10:20; Act_1:8).
Notice the way in which our Lord casts back the responsibility on the father. He said: “If Thou canst do anything”; but Jesus answered: “the if is not with Me, but with you. It is not a question of My power but of your faith. Can you believe?” Then the father threw back the responsibility on the Master, saying in effect: “I fear that I have not faith enough, but I trust Thee to create it in me. Help Thou mine unbelief.”
You and I often fail in our faith because of ignorance and besetting sin. There is the mighty ocean of power all around us, but for some reason we cannot tap it. It is like the electric current, which refuses to help us unless we have instruments precisely adapted to transmit the driving-power. Faith is absolutely necessary for the conveyance of God’s power to meet the need and sin and sorrow of the world. But when we find it deficient, when our heart believes not, when we find ourselves face to face with Jericho’s that are closely shut, and with mountains that seem to mock the tiny levers with which we propose to move them, then we must turn to Christ and say: “I trust Thee for faith, I trust Thee to keep me trusting: I believe, help Thou mine unbelief.”
Let us Pray:
We open our nature to let in Thy blessed fullness, and if our capacity be small, we pray, O Lord, that it may be enlarged, that we may miss nothing that is possible to man. We are sure that we are never straitened in Thee, but in ourselves. Amen.
Words of Wisdom
Called of God
God did not address the call to Isaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, “Who will go for us?” The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God’s call depends upon the state of my ears; and what I hear depends upon my disposition. “Many are called but few are chosen,” that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, “Who will go for us?”
It is not a question of God singling out a man and saying, “Now, you go.” God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, “Here am I, send me.” Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings.
When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men with every power wide awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, “Here am I; send me.”
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8
