Help My Unbelief | Mark 9 | Crossroads Daily

remember. Now, the feeding of the 5,000 had happened. You would think that when you got to the 4,000, you go, "Oh, we know how this goes." It's easier, actually, right? Yeah, but I think it's so easy to forget. And so, I think writing things down sometimes reminds me, "Oh, God has been faithful in the past." This is the Crossroads Daily. No experts, no perfect people, just honest conversations about what happens when the Bible shows up in real life. We're going to Crossroads Daily. My name's Caleb. I'm Chris. I'm Vivian. We are in Mark, chapter 9 today. So much happening in Mark, chapter 9. Crazy. So many stories. I don't know which one to pick, so I'm going to let you guys pick. Oh, let's start with the transfiguration. Okay, all right. I was going to say what sticks out from the chapter. Vivian wants to talk about the very beginning of the chapter, the transfiguration. Can you give me like a 30-second what happened and then tell me why sticks out? Well, I mean, Jesus is there and with his guys and this thing happens and they're like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." And then he goes, "Oh, and then by the way, don't talk about it." And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, how could you not talk about it?" You see these people? I don't know. It's wild. Yeah, so it says his clothes become dazzlingly white, and maybe it's because I'm in laundry land. It says, "White is no londerer on earth could whiten them." I'm like, "Oh yeah." Better than tide. It's better than tide even. Yeah. And Moses shows up and Elijah shows up. It's this crazy thing on top of this mountain and Jesus tells us it's disciples. They're the three that are with him. Just keep it shut. I also want to know like, how did they know it was Moses and Elijah? Like, they've never met him before. So like these guys appear and they go, "Oh, it's most similar Elijah." That was a great point. There's no Facebook. There's no like, yeah, and there's no like, you know, I would know George Washington. Maybe he walked in the room. So no paintings, but they have paintings, right? How would they know that? That is wild. Why do you think you told him not to tell anyone, Vivian? Workers? He frequently tells them not to tell when he does miracles and things. I always thought that it was because he didn't want people to seek him out for the miraculous things that happened, but more that they would seek him out for him. But people do a really poor job. They go around telling all about what he's done. And so then all these crowds come anyway, right? I think almost every chapter of Mark that I read so far, Jesus tells someone not to tell them and they go and tell anyway. And then it says he has to leave because the crowds are pressing on him too much. And I remember one, I don't know where it is in Scripture, but it says they were trying to make him king by

force. And so he had to leave. So I wonder if he's like, if this gets out, one, people are going to try to kill me because they're saying I was talking to my Moses in Elijah, like the Pharisees are going to be like, you're dead. And then anyone else who's on Jesus's side would be like, all right, we got to do this now. But like, now or never, like the revolutions begun. Let's go. So I wonder if he's like, we don't need that. I wonder if part of it is a couple of days ago, Chris, you're talking about like not being, not broadcasting your wins. How easy would it be to come down the mountain and be like, yo, I suppose it's in Elijah and Jesus look crazy. You know, and yeah, about your self up, right? And we have a, have a leader in my life that says the most important thing that God is doing is what he's doing in you. Right. Right. And sometimes it's completely appropriate to broadcast it sometimes. Right? Obviously. Right. But sometimes it's, it's more appropriate to just let it work out, right? And come, come to the finish line that God's bringing you to. I don't know. That's a good word, especially because he took the three away from the 12th. Yeah. Well, that's the thing I was wondering. You're one of the others. Yeah. And like these, these three have this really cool experience. And then these others go, oh, we didn't get invited to the party. Right. Right. So I wonder if he was protecting some one, then two of those three asked him later to be on his right. So maybe they didn't hear about it. The lesson of humility, maybe got lost to translation. Yeah. That's a good point. Chris, what, what from the chapter stuck out to you? I love, I mean, I was thinking about the transfiguration also. I love that Peter just immediately wants to do something about it. Like he's like, this is amazing. We got to set up a, like a pillar. Like he's, let's build a tab right now. Like that's going to be easy. He has no idea what he's saying, but he's like, we got to do something. And I love that's, I feel like God just has to love the heart of that, that he just wants to be a part of what's ever going on. And I love him just wanting to take a bold move, even if he has no idea what he's saying. And he gets to experience something unbelievable. Yeah. Peter's, Peter's a man of action all throughout the scriptures. And John, John Mark, who wrote the book of Mark, didn't, he wasn't a disciple. He didn't have that one on one time with Jesus. But scholars think he probably got his information from Peter, which kind of explains why Mark's like, action action action. Yeah, that's a great one of the things that And he says, if you can, if you can help make him better. And Jesus's response is, if you can, like he's like kind of offended by it, right? Everything is possible to the one who believes.

And what's stuck out to me is the father's prayers is in verse 24. He says, I do believe, help my own belief. Man, that's such a beautiful, vulnerable and authentic prayer. Like how many times have I prayed to God? Like, help me with this thing. If you can, I don't know if I believe you can, but please, if you can, like help me out. And God is open to, I think God is honored by prayers like that. Even a prayer not prayed in 100% faith. It will definitely happen. I mean, clearly he healed the man's son. When's the last time you prayed a prayer like that? I know one. Why you're thinking? Of a friend who had to be sensitive, because this is not my story. I have a friend whose wife was facing being forced to leave the country. And we didn't know what was going to happen, right? And he had no control over that. She had no control over that. He came down to a couple of meetings and governmental paperwork and blah, blah, blah, blah, long cycle of, you know, government stuff that takes forever and do a lot of us were praying about that and praying that she'll be able to stay because we want to, we love them as a couple. We want to see them still here as part of our community. And, and we prayed also knowing that like, it was a really high chance that she doesn't stay here. Thank God he answered a prayer, right? And so that's the thing that we celebrate right now, but I prayed hard for that. And in the back of my mind, I was like, I mean, it could happen the way I don't want it to happen. And thankfully, God answered, but he would think we taught me in that he would still be good, even if he didn't answer the way that I wanted, right? Right. Or in the timing that you don't want. Right. Yeah. I had that with prayers for people who have sickness or medical issues and things. And I've tried to actually not pray that if it's your will, right? Because that someone recently challenged and kind of taught me about that. So I acknowledge that God can. And he, he is a healer and he wants people to be healed. And God's timing might be now. And God's timing might be later. But I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask anyway. But sometimes it's hard because especially when I know them personally, because when it doesn't happen immediately, and sometimes it does happen immediately, but when it doesn't happen immediately, I don't want that to be a reflection of either my lack of faith or people thinking that God isn't capable. And so sometimes I, you know, jerk back from from that. And I've been, yeah, it's been more challenged by that. One of the things that the, that the father says is help my unbelief praying, how he's talking to Jesus, not even praying, maybe just talking to

Jesus face to face help my unbelief. What are things that help your unbelief? How does God help your unbelief? And again, I'll start because I know you guys, you want to think about it like when I slow down, and then we talked about this a lot, when I, when I slow down and let my soul catch up to my body, right, and make space to hear from God, and just notice the like tiny miracles, right? It feels like fall outside. And that's amazing. After a really hot summer, the birds in my backyard, you know, doing their thing without me having to do anything about it, there's flowers growing on the side of the house, fall flowers, like we still have flowers in the fall, crazy. That presses, God uses that to press unbelief out of me, right? Because he's still doing things that I haven't, I don't do anything for birds or flowers or anything. And God still makes them grow. So nature, I guess is one way that God presses on my unbelief. I feel like friends help my unbelief. And my wife was saying the other day, like sometimes we need to borrow other people's faith. And like if we're in a spot where it's like, I got nothing, but I have a friend that's coming in to meet me in the space, like for some reason, supernaturally spiritually, it can bolster us in a way that we would not have been able to do on our own. And I've been in tons of low pits with mental health stuff, like depression, anxieties and areas around like, I don't know what tomorrow might look like in any kind of way. And I've had friends like that are just like, I'm here and I got you and I'm interceding and praying on your behalf when you don't even feel like you can offer that up. And I think that's I don't know if it was Andrew and someone else, whoever says like, hey, you gotta hear about this guy, like and he's like, come follow me. I forget who he's talking to. But like the friend is relying on the word of his friend that like, hey, there's something you should come see. Like he's borrowing his faith to come and see something greater. And I feel like in a lot of ways, I have to do that often when I'm like, I got nothing. I don't believe this can happen. I need other people to remind me like, hey,

because they're gonna be in a similar spot too. And they've leaned on my faith also. I love it. - Something that helps me is when I journal 'cause I'll write down things 'cause then I'll remember. One of the things that, I don't know if it's this chapter or when we were talking about the feeding of the 4,000, I was looking. Now, the feeding of the 5,000 had happened. You would think that when you got to the 4,000, you'd go, oh, we know how this goes. - It's easier actually, right? - But I think it's so easy to forget. And so I think writing things down sometimes reminds me, oh God, has Trump been faithful in the past. - I love it. Wherever you're struggling to have belief, you don't have to hide it from God. He already knows. Like the challenge from this chapter is bring that unbelief to God. Maybe even borrow this dad's prayer. I believe, help my unbelief, bring it to God, see what he says, see what he wants you to do, take action on that thing. I think your life will move forward. See you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

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