Luke 9:21-24 (NIV, parenthesis added by me)

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There is a new 9:24 in my life these days. You're looking at it right here. The father of a possessed boy seeks healing from Jesus, and realizes that it's not that he doesn't believe in Jesus, it's that he suffers from the same fallen nature that the rest of humanity does. He acknowledges his unbelief, and asks for help to overcome this unbelief.

Doubt and unbelief are real emotions that take hold of us from time to time. But are they really signs that our faith is weak? I'd say this passage tells us that the opposite can be true if we simply realize that we, as humans, are prone to disbelief! We need help to continue believing what we know to be true, and that's that Jesus is capable of everything he says he can do.

In this passage, Jesus orders the demon from the boy's body immediately after the boy's father asks for help with his unbelief. 1 John 3:21-22 says, "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him."

It is Jesus' desire to give me what I ask for. I need only approach him with confidence, and not with the debilitating self-doubt that the enemy continuously whispers into my heart.

It feels pretty freeing to rediscover this stuff today.

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Look at 'em go! 9 combined pounds lost for Shaun and Lindsay this week. As for me? I'm in neutral, and fighting off a slight leg injury that's had me on the shelf for about five days, minus the race--another vast improvement over my previous best time this year (over 2 minutes faster than my Shamrock Shuffle 5K performance). I'm not giving up. It's a long time until September!

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