Posts with the tag “dependence”

What happens when the faith we claim to have runs dry in the moment we need it most? In Mark 9, we find the disciples standing before a desperate father and a suffering boy, armed with authority they had used before, yet suddenly powerless. The scene is jarring, and it raises a question that cuts right to the heart of our own spiritual lives: are we relying on Christ, or are we running on borrowed confidence from yesterday's encounters with him? The central lesson here is both sobering and liberating. Unbelief is not just a passive absence of faith. It is an active force that limits what God does in and through us. Jesus calls out an entire generation, crowds, religious scholars, and his own disciples, not to shame them, but to awaken them to the one standing right in front of them. The Bernie Madoff story that opens this message is a striking parallel. Just as financial unbelief in credible warnings led to catastrophic loss, our spiritual unbelief in a credible and proven God leads to mission failure. The remedy is not trying harder. It is looking more clearly at who Christ actually is and casting our full weight upon him.  Read More