Sometimes we doubt our faith. Sometimes we doubt that our faith is strong enough to ‘get us over the finish line’ so that we can grow closer to Christ. Sometimes we have ‘just enough’ faith to come to Christ and ask for help. In those moments, Christ gives us what we need to be stronger in our faith in Him. In those moments Christ helps us in our weakness, and always gives us what we need.
My brothers and sisters, we just heard an important story in the gospel about doubt. The kind of doubt that leads us to Christ. You see, it’s an interesting thing, doubt. Doubt means that we question truth. But in this case, the Father wasn’t questioning the truth of God. He was questioning his own strength and his own ability. His son possessed by a demon. Nobody could help him. Even the apostles couldn’t help him. So he brings his son to Christ and says, “Look, nobody could do anything for my son, but if you could do something, my son would be healed.” And Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” If you can believe. And this is where the Father doubted. He doubted his own faith. Now, it wasn’t that he had no faith at all. He had enough faith that he knew he had to go to Jesus Christ. But he understood that he didn’t have it all. He didn’t have what it took to get him, as we could say over the finish line. So he says to Christ, I believe, but help my unbelief. Help me be stronger in my faith. And Christ in that moment gives the man exactly what he needed.
You see, my brothers and sisters in our weakness, God gives us what we need. He doesn’t always give us what we want, but he always gives us what we need. In the story of the gospel today, what this man needed and what you and I need every day is stronger faith. We want to believe in God. We want to trust that when we walk out and we make decisions based upon our Orthodox Christian beliefs, we want to believe that everything is going to be okay. But we don’t always have enough faith to carry us over the finish line. But my brothers and sisters, Christ will give us what we need. He will give us that faith so we can believe in him. But it takes work. The apostles, remember, they couldn’t heal the man. Now, they had already been given power from God to heal people, but they could not cast this demon out. And so they’re confused. And so they go to Christ. “Excuse me. Didn’t you give us power over the demons? What happened?” And Christ says, “This kind can only go out through prayer and fasting. It requires devout and committed spiritual work. God will give us what we need, but we need to work to strengthen it.”
How many times have you heard me compare our spiritual disciplines in the church to exercise and going to the gym, to the fitness center? And now I know it doesn’t look like I go to the gym, but I know how it works. As they say, I’ve seen it on TV. But I know that if you want to be stronger, you have to do more than just sign up for the gym. You have to actually work. And this is what Christ is telling us in this morning’s gospel. He will strengthen our faith, but it requires work from us. It requires prayer and fasting and a life of commitment. And if we’re able to do that, then we will have enough faith to endure and defeat anything that comes our way. Enough faith. And enough is different for each and every one of us.
Some of us are going to need more faith. Some of us are going to encounter serious spiritual roadblocks in our life. Some of us are not going to experience very much opposition. Don’t compare yourself to each other. Don’t go home, I wish I had the faith of Yanni. Yanni has Yanni’s faith. We have to have our faith. And God will complete where we are lacking. He will give us what we need so long as we work for it and ask him and go to him like the Father and say, “Please help us.” And Christ will say all things are possible to those who believe.
And now let’s go and strengthen our faith in God. Let’s ask him to give us what we need to endure. Let us complete the fast. Let us pray like we’ve never prayed before. Like as the saying goes, like our life depends upon it because it does. And immediately the demon left this boy. And it was so bad the crowd thought he was dead. Laying there lifeless. And Christ picks him up and he will pick us up. He will lift us up and he will strengthen us. But he’s not going to do it without our work. We are co-workers with God. We have to go into the gym to exercise. We have to go into our orthodox faith and into our disciplines in order to get the benefit and the strength that comes from our life. Glory to God for all things.
