“Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” 

-Mark 9:23-24

As simple as it may seem on the surface, Mark 9:23-24 is one of my favorite scriptures, for one simple quote. “I believe, help my unbelief!” Does that not resonate with all of us? Have we not all cried out in a moment of desperation, “Lord! I WANT to believe! Stir up faith within me!” Have we not all struggled, knowing in our minds that His promises are true, while struggling in our hearts to believe that His promises will be true for us? What do we do in these moments? How do we get a belief in our head to become a conviction in our heart?

To get from the head to the heart, we must of course start with the head. As I am prone to do, I wanted to analyze the root words in this passage in their original intended language, and make sure we have fully grasped and understood the meaning of each word. First, the father says “I believe.” In this passage, the word translated as believe is the Greek word pisteuō, which is translated more fully as follows: “To think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in.” I love that, especially the last part, “to place confidence in.” Now, when the father exclaims “help my unbelief!” What does THAT mean for us? The Greek word here is apistia, which is translated as “unfaithfulness, faithlessness (of persons betraying a trust).” Do you notice anything there? “of persons betraying a trust.” Faith is belief put in action. Unfaithfulness is to BETRAY a trust. How do we display faith? How do we know someone has placed their confidence in something being true? They act as if it were true.

See, the problem is, our feelings are liars, and they’re really good at it. Jeremiah 17:9 even goes as far as to say the heart is deceitful and wicked above all things. So where does that leave us? Well, I would say we can learn two things from this scripture. First, we must recognize that our belief is a decision, not a feeling. Like the man in the story, we recognize and affirm to ourselves and to God that our hearts/feelings can be deceptive and are not indicative of how we must act, and insist that we DO believe, and we want to believe more. Secondly, like the man in the story, we recognize how hopeless our hearts are without His help. The man didn’t ask Jesus to give him a lecture on how to help his unbelief, He asked Jesus to help his unbelief. We plant, He waters. When we recognize our need for His help, when we recognize that we cannot change our hearts on our own, He will always meet us there.

So today, if you have found yourself struggling to connect your head to your heart, I would ask you one simple question. What are you putting your confidence in? If I want to sit down, I can believe that a chair will hold me, but I am not putting confidence in that fact until I sit down in it. Whether I “feel” that it will uphold me, has very little to do with the matter. Faith is belief that has been mobilized. You don't have to feel something is true to know in your mind that it is, and act accordingly. And surprisingly, I have found that the more we act on a belief regardless of our feelings, the more it starts to feel true after all. As we ask for His help, as we place our confidence in Him and live according to what He has said and we have chosen in our minds to hold as true, I believe we will be amazed at how quickly He will meet us where we are and condition our hearts to follow suit. From the head to the heart, may we cry out, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

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