"Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, 'I do believe; help my unbelief.'" Mark 9:24, NASBOftentimes, I find myself in a situation where I am hurting, or lonely, or frustrated, because I have run out of solutions. I don't know what to do anymore, so I stop to pray. I have it backwards. When a situation comes around, good, bad, or indifferent, my first instinct should be go to the Lord in prayer. I should be so filled with His presence on a daily basis that I don't even have to wait for a situation to become apparent.
Even when I do go to Him, it's in a "please do what I want," rather than a "Thy will be done" attitude. The father who came to Jesus and said "If you are able, please heal my son," had nowhere else to turn. But Jesus wasn't just looking to be his last resort that "might work." He wanted this man to acknowledge that Jesus was the only one who was able. He wanted this man to face the unbelief in his heart. And the man got the message. He saw the unbelief in his heart, he knew he could do nothing about it, but he knew that Jesus could. "Help my unbelief."
These past several months have been difficult for me, for a variety of reasons. My fiancee broke off our engagement, a family friend was murdered outside his home, I have struggled with feelings of depression, loneliness, and doubts of my own self-worth, and I have had friends go into the hospital with debilitating illnesses. All of these things came in a perfect storm these last few months. But as the lyrics to a song written by a friend of mine say, "If You can calm the raging sea, You can calm the storm in me."
This hymn that I'm reflecting on today, Begone Unbelief, was written by John Newton (yes, that John Newton, the one who wrote Amazing Grace) in 1779. It is set to the same tune, Lyons, as O Worship the King and Ye Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim.
What I love about this hymn is the imagery that you see and the reminders of truth throughout.
"With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm." Everything I said about
"Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail, The Word He has spoken shall surely prevail." After every provision we have stored up is gone, and after every earthly creature has failed us, God is still there, He is still good, and He still has the best answer.
"Each sweet Ebenezer" is a reminder of God's goodness in the past. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8, NASB). An "ebenezer" is a memorial stone, set up to remind us of God's goodness in the past. The word comes from 1 Samuel 7:12, where Samuel sets up a stone in commemoration of God's help to the Israelites in their victory at Mizpah and calls it an Ebenezer.
"He told me no less." Christ told us that we would suffer for following him. As if that wasn't enough, Paul, James, Peter, John, and the author of Hebrews all made it abundantly clear. Why do we still seem surprised? Of course, we're not alone, look at 1 Peter 4:12: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." (NASB).
"Did Jesus thus suffer, and shall I repine?" We so want a life of ease. I love the way that Paul Tripp puts it, that we want the grace of relief, when what we need is the grace of refinement. Isaac Watts addresses this same question in Am I a Soldier of the Cross?, reminding us that we are called to follow in Christ's footsteps, to daily take up our cross and follow Him.
Join me in singing as we remind ourselves of God's goodness yesterday and today and forever:
Begone Unbelief
Begone unbelief, my Savior is near,
And for my relief will surely appear:
By prayer let me wrestle, and He wilt perform,
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.
Though dark be my way, since He is my guide,
’Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail,
The Word He has spoken shall surely prevail.
His love in time past forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.
Determined to save, He watched o’er my path,
When Satan’s blind slave, I sported with death;
And can He have taught me to trust in His name,
And thus far have brought me, to put me to shame?
Why should I complain of want or distress,
Temptation or pain? He told me no less:
The heirs of salvation, I know from His Word,
Through much tribulation must follow their Lord.
How bitter that cup, no heart can conceive,
Which He drank quite up, that sinners might live!
His way was much rougher, and darker than mine;
Did Jesus thus suffer, and shall I repine?
Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the medicine is food;
Though painful at present, wilt cease before long,
And then, O! how pleasant, the conqueror’s song!
(Public Domain)
