The Gift of Belief...

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine yesterday. She's had a difficult life - one full of relational struggles and health challenges. In the last year she's had a heart attack and watched both her mother and brother die. We spent some time talking about her difficult year. And then she got brutally honest. She shared that she really wants to believe that there is more to this life, but sometimes it just seems impossible. She worries that as she faces death there will be nothing beyond. One thing that I really appreciate when it comes to our spiritual lives is honesty. I think that when we are honest with what's really going on in our hearts that God honors that by giving us deeper glimpses of who He is.

We talked a lot about what it means to believe. Jesus said that all the faith that you need is faith the size of a mustard seed. That encourages me. If I have even a shred of belief He honors that.

Sometimes we all feel like the man in Mark 9:17-27.

A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."

"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"

"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

"'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" How's that for honesty? Can you identify with that?

So that's my prayer this Christmas - for my friend, for me, for you. That God will give us the gift of "belief" - the size of a mustard seed. And here's a tip. It begins with spiritual honesty.

May God bless you as you trust Him to bring to birth in you the very Christ child who changed the world 2000 years ago. Merry Christmas.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)