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“I do believe. Help my unbelief.” That one line from Mark 9:24 is short, raw, and almost uncomfortably relatable, especially when you’re carrying stress you can’t fix. We slow down and unpack what’s happening in the story, why a desperate father’s prayer matters so much, and how it gives Christian men language for the moments when faith feels fragile.
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There are seasons in life where God can feel painfully quiet. Prayers seem unanswered, direction feels unclear, and the silence itself can slowly begin to shape how we view Him, ourselves, and the future ahead. If this resonates you may enjoy this plan that just released on the Bible App. To dive into this 5-day plan check it out here https://thelionwithin.us/devotional/im-just-a-guy-silent/
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Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders, God intends you to be. I'm your host, Chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, guys, spiritual kickoff time. Let's get into it. Okay, so scripture week this week is Mark 9.24. Immediately, the boys' father cried out and said, I do believe. Help my own belief. Guys, that's a powerful verse right there. We're going to pack it. We're going to see how we can simplify and apply it to our life. And hopefully, you guys enjoy the spiritual kickoff episodes. And if you do, go to the lionwithin.us and start your daily SKO right now. Hey, guys, we do it Monday through Friday. And we also, with the daily SKO, give you access to our prayer request space where we would love to know how we can pray for you. We have a prayer meeting every Monday. We call it a prayer warrior huddle. You're invited to that. It's just an open Google meet. Guys, hop on and they let us know how we can pray for them. And guess what? We just pray over it. It's that simple. And if you're listening to this and you sign up for the daily SKO and you live in the continental U.S., we got a free gift we'd love to send you guys. So go check all those resources out. Thelionwithin.us.
Okay. All right. We need to first, in this verse in Mark, understand where is Mark? Okay. So that's in the New Testament. It's one of the gospels. You got Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Okay. So after Matthew before Luke. That's where you're going to find this one nestled in. And there's some verses in Scripture that are kind of familiar to us, and we can just fly right past them if we're not careful. And Mark 924 is one of those verses. It's super short. It's honest. It's pretty raw, right?
And it comes from the mouth of a dad who's absolutely at the end of his rope. And what's going on is this guy brings his son to Jesus because his boy's been tormented. I'm talking about since childbirth, he's been tormented. And he's watched his son suffer over and over and over. And he's probably tried everything. He's he's felt like through this process that the prayers that he's been praying as a dad are just being unanswered. Most likely he's had some sleepless nights. Like he's got some um just living with this burden that no parent ever wants to carry. Because I mean there's no pain like kid pain, right? It's just not. And then this guy hears about this guy named Jesus. I don't know, maybe he hears about the miracles or or hear that disciples have been healing people. So he makes a trip, right? He makes a trip. And that tells us something right there.
SPEAKER_00
That he had enough trust to do whatever he needed to do to go to Jesus. Period.
Chris Grainger
So when he arrives, right, Jesus is not necessarily there to start with, but his disciples are. And they can't. Doesn't that they can't help him. And I can't, you know, you start thinking about that from a dad's standpoint, like just imagine his hope is up because oh, you're Jesus' disciples, awesome, here's my son, and then it crashes right back down, right? Because he they couldn't fix him. He came looking for a breakthrough and he found disappointments. And he came up for hoping for healing, and then he just left with another reason to wonder if anything would ever change for his son. And that's where trust gets hard, bro. This is where it gets hard. That's why I love scripture like this, because it makes us wrestle with it. And it's one thing to talk about trusting God in theory, okay? That's a whole different thing when to struggle with sitting at your kitchen table or lying in a hospital bed. Right? Or maybe they're walking away from faith or they're battling addiction or depression or suffering in a way that we can't fix as dad. As dad, we want to fix it, but we can't. That's when trust hits close to home. And this father's words to Jesus. Bro, I think there's some of the most honest prayers in the whole stinking Bible, period. I don't think you can't get any more authentic than this. He's like, I believe, but help my unbelief. In other words, I kind of start thinking about this thing. He's like, Lord, I really want to believe. I really do. And I have enough faith right now to come to you, but I'm scared to death. I'm tired, I'm discouraged, I'm unsure, and I don't know what I can fully trust right now. All I know is my boy right here. He is miserable, he is facing this, and there's nothing that I can from on from my standpoint, nothing I can do as a dad to help him. So I don't know. And I don't know. To me, that's just real faith. That's just real faith, man. He's not pretending, he's not polishing it up, he's not like he's acting to be stronger than he really is. He's just being honest with Jesus. And he's like, look, I I got faith enough to bring you here, and uh, but I got some doubt that I just can't shake. I got some doubt that I just can't get it rid of. And that should be encouraging for everybody out there who's ever felt torn between belief and unbelief. And there are times when we know the right answer, but our heart is struggling to rest in it, right?
SPEAKER_00
Like we know God is good, but the situation is still unbearable. Or we know Jesus is faithful, but does that make the pain go away? No. No.
Just like we know the Bible is true, but our circumstances are screaming at us and just telling us something different. And in those moments, man, I don't know about for you, but for me, it's easy to become bitter. When things don't go the way we hope, or maybe when prayers are just delayed, or like they just fall on deaf ears, or when people disappoint us, particularly God's people disappoint us. That's when trust starts to get severed. Right? We don't get the outcome we want. Next thing you know, we're starting we're pulling away. We're pulling back, we stop praying, we stop the well, God ain't gonna do nothing anyways. And then what do you do? You start protecting yourself from what? Because you more disappointment. You don't want to be hurt again. I'm telling you, bro, this happens. But this father and this account shows us a better way. And what he shows is that instead of walking away from Jesus, disappointed, you bring that disappointment directly to him.
And I need to hear that, and maybe you need to hear that. Because doubt, please, please, please, out of this whole podcast, hear this. Doubt is not the same as rebellion. Nope. Struggling is not the same as quitting either. So having questions does not mean that you've abandoned your faith. It just means that you're human, bro. Period. The problem is not having a moment of doubt, the problem is choosing to live there. And this father's posture, it just I keep going back to his posture. It's creating room for Jesus to do what Jesus does, man. He didn't have perfect faith, but he had honest faith. And that honest faith often looks like saying, Lord, I'm hanging on by a thread, but I'm gonna bring this to you anyway. I ain't got nothing else to do with it. And that kind of prayer honors God more than any type of fake confidence ever could. And Jesus can handle our insecurities, fellas. He can handle our fears and the parts that we're wrestling with day in and day out. Because he's not intimidated by a man who admits he's struggling to believe. And in fact, scripture shows us God meets people right in their weaknesses again and again and again. Because why? The God of the Bible is faithful. He just is. And Jesus shows us the heart of the Father. He's not crushed, he's not out there crushing the wounded or shaming people in desperation. No, he meets them right where they are. And maybe you need to hear that right now. And maybe you're listening to this podcast and you're struggling to believe right now. It's okay. You don't have to manufacture perfect faith before you can come to Christ. Come to him with what you have. Bring that little bit of faith, but just that little bit of faith. Bring the doubt, bring the exhaustion, the frustration, the pain that you don't know what to do with. And then just say, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00
That's surrender. It's not being weak. No, it's surrender. The best way that I know to grow faith is learning to trust that Jesus is who he says he is. Not fearing who he is, but trusting who he is.
Chris Grainger
You know, and bitterness is gonna try to hold you back from fully embracing who he is. But I encourage you to trust that Jesus is faithful, he is near, he is good, even when life is not. That doesn't mean, fellas, that you know, uh we should should just think that life's gonna be free of trouble. No. Jesus didn't promise that he said in this life you will have trouble. But it does mean we have access to the Prince of Peace in the middle of that trouble. In this world that's pretty stinking chaotic and painful and uncertain, this should bring you comfort. So again, if you're feeling weak today was from the faith standpoint, don't run.
SPEAKER_00
Don't be condemned either. Instead, run to him. Because this is where you find peace and encouragement.
Chris Grainger
And it's so much closer than you may realize. And this father right here, I'm so glad that this got put in the gospel. He didn't have it all figured out, but he knew where to take his hurt. Man, I just pray that we as guys have courage to do the same thing. Maybe the question worth wrestling with this week is where are you struggling to trust Jesus right now? And here's something that uh you know you need to hear. It's okay to to struggle with this. We all have these seasons. And I'm hopeful just by going through this verse and giving you a little glimpse of who he is from his word that you're being encouraged, okay?
And look, the most encouragement I can offer you is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And if you don't have that, and you're listening to this and you got encouraged by this verse, I'm thank you. I'm glad you're encouraged by it. But there's nothing that I can do or point to you inside God's word that's going to help any more than him actually coming and dwelling inside of you with a new heart, walking with you as the Holy Spirit. That means you need to surrender your life to Jesus as Lord and Savior. And I can't make you do it. I can't make you do it. I can just point you to him. I can just know one thing. When I look at this scripture of this of this dad, he didn't know a lot about uh probably things in this world, but he knew one thing. There was hope in Jesus. And I don't know what you're dealing with in life right now. Maybe you're going through a difficult season of financial or health, you know, or or it could just be mental or it could be career, whatever, whatever. We all have seasons. I mean, I tell people all the time, you're in trial, you're coming out of a trial, or you're either getting ready to go into a trial. That's the three seasons of life. But I know one thing, no matter the season, the trial, the mountaintop, the valley, doesn't matter. When you have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit with you at all times, you just have this peace that passes all understanding. And that's what I'm trying to encourage you with, to invite Jesus in your life, into your heart as Lord and Savior. And I can't make you do it, but I can point you to it. And when I see verses like this with a dad like that, it is so encouraging to me. And hopefully it is to you as well. So I would invite you, if you never surrender your life to a Lordship of Jesus Christ, and you see the verses like this, Lord, I believe, but just help mom believe. You're right where you need to be. You just bring that mustard size, mustard seed size bit of faith to him and just watch and see what he does with it. And so it meant that you need him. Believe he is who he says he is, and confess him as Lord
and Savior. Let's pray. So, God, I don't know who's listening right now. I just know one thing. You are awesome. And verses like this are so just incredibly amazing because they speak to your nature and your goodness and your faithfulness. And we're so thankful for that. God, I'm so thankful for you. I'm so thankful that you listen to us, you hear us, even in our unbelief, even in the moments where we want to pull back and say, I don't know about this anymore. You're right there, you're faithful, you're true. So we thank you for that. We thank you for loving us the way that you do. And God, I'm just praying for that one listener right now. They never surrendered their life to you. They've been trying to do life their way for way too long. It just hasn't been working out. And Lord, we know the evil ones just trying to steal, kill, and destroy everything we have in our life that's good. But we also know you are the author and perfector of life. You've overcome. And that when we surrender to you, we are you're with us. You're never going to leave us or forsake us. So I just pray, Father, as this one person surrenders their life to you, and that they put a hedge protection around them to help fend off the attacks of the evil one as they start their spiritual, their discipleship journey, right, rather. And we're so thankful for what you did for us when we don't deserve it. And we love you, we praise you, and let us glorify you in all that we do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So look,
like you just accepted Christ like touchdown, first and foremost. This is a big deal, bro. This is a big deal. Don't minimize it. I'd love to celebrate with you. Also got some resources I want to send you just to help you in your discipleship journey. Just want to, I can email them over to you, so it's no big deal. You can either either email me at Chris or support at the lionwithin.us. Both of those emails get to me. We'll be happy to respond, reply back. Love to hop on a call with you to encourage you to walk, just to you know, give you a little bit of a of a uh virtual high five, if you will, to welcome you into the kingdom. And also just to hear from you, okay? So look, love to hear from you there. Uh, guys, this is a gonna be a great week at the Lion Within Us. We're so blessed and honored to be able to do this week in and week out. We are so thankful for you for listening. Our next episode is gonna be great. You're gonna love the guests, fellas. It's just uh incredible, powerful conversation. Really boils down to trusting God. And while we should, and it's okay to wrestle with it when we don't and have those moments. We just can't live there. Can't live there. We want to put our trust, our hope, and our faith in him. Guys, that's what it's all about. So, anyway, fellas, that that's what we got going on today. Uh, hopefully you enjoyed the podcast. Give us a rating and review. If you listen to Spotify, hey, comment out over there, YouTube, all that fun stuff. Connect with us on our social channels, fellas. We're trying to do more and more in those areas, just things we're learning. Open up the Bible app and search for the Lion Within Us. We'd love, love, love to connect with you on the Bible app. So all that can be found there. And other than that, guys, I hope you guys have a great day. We'll see you next time. Give us a rating and review if you don't mind. Head over to thelionwithin.us and start your daily SKO. Join the Lions then directly. Or put in an application for a leadership mastermind. All those ways you can get connected with us. Grab a copy of Unleashing The Lion Within. We've got a new book that's gonna be coming out soon. I'm not gonna tell you what it is yet, but uh just rest assured it's coming out though. We're super excited about that. So other than that, get after it, have a good one. We'll see you. A good one. We'll see you next time and keep unleashing The Lion Within.
If you're like me, you don't need another book just sitting around collecting dust. What I enjoy is something to help guide me when my feet hit the ground in the mornings. And that is why we put together Unleashing the Lion Within. It has honest stories, scripture you can apply, and simple steps to help you lead at home, at work, and everywhere in between. So if you've been feeling stuck or scattered lately, you may find this resource encouraging. Read a few pages. Take one step and watch what God does with your obedience. Hey, and if reading's tough for you right now, no problem. The book is also available in Audible version. So you can listen on the go. So if this sounds interesting, check out thelionwithin.us slash book or search for unleashing the lion within directly on Amazon. So there's no pressure here, just a resource that many guys are finding helpful. So grab the format that fits and take your next step.
