Do You Believe (Day 3.1)
Welcome to our third week of Breaking Free with Beth Moore! Last week we learned about five primary benefits from our relationship with God. This week we’ll we learn about obstacles in our path to freedom. Today we’re learning about unbelief, as Beth Moore walks us into a discussion of this important obstacle. We even completed a self-test on page 59 to assess how strongly we believe or disbelieve a statement based upon the Bible. As we worked through the lesson, we found a “belief diagram” and charted our place between unbelief and certainty.
I’ve encountered an obstacle on page 60 when Beth discussed physical illness and healing. My heart’s desire is to ask God for healing those who are ill. When He doesn’t, a shadow of unbelief rests on my shoulders. Several times I’ve heard suffering people ask “Why doesn’t God heal me? I believe in Him, I pray day and night, and I’m still ill!”
Beth reminds us there is a purpose in illness, and unbelief makes it difficult to accept His purpose. I’m surrounded by illness, personally and professionally and I’ve seen Gods’ glory as well as His absence. From a world perspective, it makes no sense and from a spiritual perspective, it’s a necessity.
It’s events such as these that keep us flowing back and forth on the belief diagram. A child is healed from leukemia, my certainty of belief exceeds all expectations. A baby dies from the same illness a few months later, after she is covered in prayer and the Pastor gets on his knees-and I see my confidence wavering. Back and forth, this constant struggle between belief and unbelief is exhausting! Seeing friends lose a child to illness, hearing stories about mothers of young children who are dying from breast cancer, and knowing that autism is an epidemic-I tilt my blue eyes to the Lord and whisper “why.” My visual perception is limited by my presence here on earth.
In scripture, we learn that Jesus uses simple words to translate this worldview to a spiritual view:
Do you Believe?
- Do you believe, when a child has leukemia and her family is crippled with emotional pain.
- Do you believe, when your child is diagnosed with autism and he will never know a normal life.
- Do you believe, when you’ve lost your financial security and the economy is down.
- Do you believe, when the lump in your breast is confirmed breast cancer.
- Do you believe, when your husband goes to work and does not come home, because he died.
- Do you believe, when your toddler is diagnosed with diabetes and needs constant care.
- Do you believe, when……
DO
YOU
BELIEVE?
What do we gain by unbelief? Depression, lost hope, sadness, self destruction or spiritual death? Giving our life to the enemy of destruction, instead of living our life in God’s full Glory?
Prayer Requests
Father God, we pray together as we seek help from our doubts and you open our eyes to believe. Unveil areas inside our hearts that are shadowed with doubt and unbelief. Put the words of Jesus at the center of our thoughts, as we profess that we truly believe. Remove the obstacle of unbelief and strengthen our steadfast walk of faith. Amen.
Week Three Memory Verse (see scripture card in back of your workbook)
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Isaiah 64:4
Beth Moore Quotes
- Unbelief is crippling -Beth Moore
- God is looking for people who will run to Him in steadfast belief -Beth Moore
Today’s Scripture Verses
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, “Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!” Mark 9:24 (The Message)
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:19
Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Matt 9:28
Group Discussion
Have you experienced unbelief in your walk of faith, and if so, how did you overcome the obstacle?
Breaking free,
this brings me back to the death of my grandfather. when he was diagnosed last year of cancer, he lived 44 days after that diagnoses. the doctor said that it was everywhere that he couldn’t find the source & believed he had lived with it for over 13 years. at the time i had been away from the church but i remember my grandfather with every move he made he always said, “Praise the Lord”. i knew he knew where he was going, although no one was ready for this, it was upon us. he asked me to sing with him “Jesus Loves Me”, i hadn’t sang that song since i was a child but i remembered the words. today i can’t bring myself to sing this song, it hurts too much. i do believe that there is a reason for everything and we may not understand it at the time but over time we will see it. God has my path set…its my faith journey. what i learned in church this sunday…(taken from John 3:16) For God so loved “Nicole” that He sent his one & only son.
At the start of today’s lesson I thought unbelief might be something I struggle with…but by the time I was finished I had changed my mind. My problem appears to be more of a lack of confidence that I understand exactly what I have a right to believe. I don’t doubt the infallibility of scripture and I make sure I saturate myself with it because I’m quite sure I can not make sense of anything in life aside from the truth and perspective of God’s word…but I very often doubt I have correctly understood God’s promises, particularly when I see things in my life or the life of friends and loved ones that seem to be contradictory to one of God’s promises. The key word being “seem” because I fully believe any inconsistency is on the human side.
I fear this not only with my own understanding of God’s word, but I also find myself questioning anything someone else tells me about God and His word, too. Even as I do this study I sometimes find myself thinking, “Now Beth, are you sure that’s what He meant by that scripture?” I don’t want to talk myself into believing something about Him and then someday find I have deceived myself.
I guess it boils down to: I don’t doubt Him, but I often doubt I understand Him correctly and I fear I might not recognize it if I were misinterpreting His promises…
Any ideas for how I might shake that?
Ok, I’m going to tread softly here, but in my walk I have had to learn what truth is. It has not been easy. I hear that in what you are saying. The world tells us one thing, churches, even religious sounding leaders tell us things, but what is it we are to believe?
For me the scripture “Sanctify them by truth, my Word is truth” was the answer. It sounds like you believe this as well. I test what I hear against Scripture. I also test it against fellow Christians whom I have found to be comitted and strong in the Lord. I respect them, I seek their advice, but even then make sure it is true to the Word.
Questioning is not a problem, but at some point we need to realize and trust in the truth of God’s Word, and ask Him for more of His Holy Spirit’s discernment if there are questionable areas. Then believe. It is a trust issue as well as a belief issue. Gradually start trusting what you believe, and ask God to correct you if your belief is wrong. He will show you, trust in His guidance, that will help you from fearing your own mistakes. And inconsistencies in other people happen because we area as you said “human”. Look to God, look to strong Christians, and trust God to show you. It’s ok to lean on Him for answers, remember “fear not!” and “come unto me all who are weary” It gets wearisome trying to figure things out all the time…rest in Him for awhile. He loves you and is capable of keeping you from falling, or believing wrong things. God is not the author of confusion, but a sound mind! and I think you have a very sound mind, just relax it for awhile, and rest in Him. He’ll show you!, cuz He loves you!!!
This is beautiful profundity. I’ve long objected to people excusing God when someone is NOT healed by saying the ill person does not have enough faith. In fact, it angers me.
Recently God has shown me the cripping effects of my own disbelief:
“Do you believe, when you’ve lost your financial security and the economy is down.”
How has He shown me? When I pray, He is pointing out my disbelief like a school marm with a ruler. With that bright light on my own faith, I’m stunned at how much I ask for that I don’t believe at the moment of asking!
Now I begin by asking for faith, even that of a grain of mustard seed.
God bless my special sister, keep sharing your journey.
Mark 9:20-24 always gives me somewhat of a jerk when I read it. When the man says, “But “if” you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. And then I’ve always Jesus kind of raising his voice a little and looking directly into the man’s eyes and saying, “IF YOU CAN”? ‘IF YOU CAN”? DID YOU JUST SAY IF I CAN? (My paraphrase) And then He says, “Everything is possible for him who believes. My question is “everything is possible for him who believes what (or who?) I am guilty myself of saying well “if God answers my prayers or if God does that. I know I “should” be saying when God does that. I’m not talking about “name & claim it” theology cause we have to be careful with some of that but what I’m saying is why do I always put the word “if” before God’s name. I think someone else said that maybe we don’t feel worthy or we think we are being humble if we say if because we feel we might be putting God out and I think that is a lot of it. But it is in “Red words” right there. Jesus said “everything is possible for him who believes. Believes what? I think the what is Believe God”. I am a true believer on standing on the Word and meditating it and saying it out loud, putting my name in place of the the scripture like “Everything is possible for Charmaine who believes” but what is blocking me from really really getting “believing God” Is there someone or something popping up in our minds that is trying to right away negate the Word we just spoke or read? I think the biggie for me might be #3 on page 59–”we gave up before God timed his response” In a world where we want it and we want it now we want to make God a “fast answer God” (like fast food) We are impatient. I have something going on right now where I am going back and forth and wavering about how God will participate in an item in my life. But the other day I saw something that told me God was right on time–His time–not mine. I must “be anxious for nothing” It breaks my heart to think I may be walking in unbelief and I pray God will show me the things I can do to “help my unbelief”
This material is so good you could probably spend two days on each part. So much to ask ourselves and correct in ourselves. I praise God for this. None of us are here in this study by accident.
I struggle with the unbelief that God will heal my child from OCD. I know He has the ability to do so, yet I do not pray or ask, for fear that he will deny the request. It hurts to see your child struggle emotionally, it causes constant stress in the marriage and affects my other child. It’s absolute pain and sometimes feels like living hell. I never thought about my unbelief in this situation. I do believe in God. I don’t believe that He would cure this illness, so I do not ask, fearing rejection and disappointment.
This study shows me that unbelief is an obstacle in my path and needs to be removed. When I don’t ask, He can’t answer. I can remove unbelief from reading scripture, staying in Bible study and praying to God. Please pray for God to remove my unbelief allowing me to place full trust and authority in His hands.
Found some verses to carry in my heart:
“Everything is possible for him who believes” said Jesus. Mark 9:23
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matt 21:22
And they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. Exodus 4:31
I understand what you’re saying. On a much smaller scale I confront disbelief on the economy and my career. I don’t ask anymore for fear of rejection; I don’t even bring it up as a prayer request to friends anymore. I know there’s a lesson in this and it may be that this will be my thorn in the flesh, that God’s strength will be shown in my weakness.
When I have asked for relief, I ask only in order to have more to share with those in need. I tell myself out loud to “believe” and I ask God for “faith”, but I feel disbelief deeply, in some hidden recess of my soul.
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matt 17:20
When we imagine unbelief as a boulder, an obstacle in our course, God says we can move it. The reward for moving the obstacle is that we KNOW and BELIEVE God in every sense possible.
I think in our independence, we rely on our own efforts and past experiences, rather than placing our trust and faith in God. Do we give it over to Him, or do we cling to our problems. Why do we allow the boulder to stay in our path?
This man was not ashamed or too proud to say, “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief” Why do we find it hard to admit to ourselves and to God what we know we need help with and what He already knows? Shame? Denial? Pride? Fear of rejection?
I have not arrived. What a wretched man I am–
“In my weakness He is strong” “More of Him and less of me”
Thanks for the scripture references Christine.
I think if we are all honest, we all have experienced unbelief, and it is painful, and it does pull us down. I think sometimes I’m afraid to believe, mostly because I’m afraid of what my belief may require of me . . .and then I begin all the self examination, I can over-analyze anything . .why did this happen? why now? what did or didn’t I do? how can I change this? and always, I remember, that it isn’t about me – -it’s about letting God be glorified . .and so I yield (a little faster these days) to trusting God, having faith in Him, trusting His love to carry me through. Some days life hurts, (like when I want to be able to hug my autistic grandson and know I can’t because it hurts him), some days life is overwhelming . . .and so, I continually remind myself God is in control! I’ve been trying so hard to allow FAITH talk louder than fear.
My sister in law recently passed away very unexpectledly and we had been praying for her healing for a long time. It has had a major impact on me and I questioned God – why and why this way and why now? I do believe God is in control whether we like the situation or not – he has the perfect plan. Still it disrupted my connection to the Lord and my attention in reading the Bible and things that were much easier before. I have prayed for God to help me with my unbelief and finally understood what that meant because of this lesson. So many people were affected by her passing and I know the Lord is using this for his good and for his glory – but it hasn’t been easy to say that. She always said it might take her death to bring someone to the Lord. This lesson came along at the right time though I would have loved it if my s-i-l could be participating as well – it would have been great to do this together. So “Lord – help me with my unbelief” really speaks to me these days. Thank God for this Bible Study and the Bible Cafe.
Great Comments…Thank You all for sharing so much.
Have I experienced unbelief? Yes, yes, yes. Somedays I live there. It’s not that I don’t believe in God. I truly believe that He is capable. But I know that what I ask for is not always His will and it hinders me in asking for a miracle for Aiden. I want him to be healed–we struggled with the decision to have his kidneys removed because it seemed like we were taking away the possibility that God would heal them. But, we prayed about it and felt that it was the right thing to do… disbelief? No. But, while continuing to believe God we must still make hard decisions about the welfare of our precious baby boy everyday. Spending so much time in the hospital you know the other “regulars” and their parents. I have seen 2 of these regulars die this year. Could He have healed them? Absolutely, but he didn’t and Why? I know for sure that these mothers prayed for healing for their children but none came…why? And why should I expect to be any different? Growing up I loved the ask, seek, knock scriptures so much….but I have trouble with it now and with other scriptures that say all you have to do is ask and it will be done…I don’t understand how that works. I have asked. Others with a great deal more faith than I have asked…it’s not always done/ not His will? I know that God we can not possibly understand all of the things and ways of God here on Earth. I know that He can bring good from all things. It just hurts me so to see these children and my baby hurting. He made them perfect, why are they flawed? Why must they suffer? I don’t understand and it truly creates an issue with belief…not belief in what He can do, but what He will do.
Father-help me overcome my unbelief.
I’m with you on this one Christy. Today I heard Joyce Meyer speak as she said “we need to stop asking God to ‘bless me, bless me, bless me’ and ask Him to “break me.” Like Jesus broke the bread-he broke it-so we can be healed. Break me Lord, show me the areas of weakness in my life, reveal when I am in disbelief and embrace me with healing.
Yes, I agree Theresa! Thank you!
This is a toughie! I have been sitting here for some time trying to figure out if I believe. I know I believe in God. Like the father who brought the son to Jesus. He knew who to go to. He just wasn’t sure what Christ would be able to do for him or his son. So he basically told Jesus that. If you are able. I go through life in the “if you are able” category. The I believe in You, but help my unbelief in your actually doing something in the here and now.
I think what I have decided after thinking about this for awhile, is that it boils down to something as simple as choice. I can either choose to believe, or choose not to believe, as Christine pointed out in the beginning. Believing is the far better option. It is so tied into trust that I find it hard to pull them apart. The more I start trusting the greater my belief in Him, and vice versa. I think it grows as we do, but can be as simple as a child’s faith…. and maybe that’s just how He wants it…”unless you become as a child, you cannot enter the kingdome of God” simple child like faith, belief, trust…
Ok … I am a week behind. This past week was an awful week for me in the pain department. Today, I have some time ALONE and I am trying to catch up …
Unbelief is such a strong word that brings much consequence with it. Have I ever been in “unbelief”? Many times.
My senior year of college, the guy I dated for 2 years left me for my best friend. My response: “God, help me believe you know what is best.” God’s response: “My grace is sufficient”
After itching for 2 solid years, experiencing a horrendous pregnancy (my doctor’s words), and then hearing the word “Cancer” come out of the same doctor’s mouth. My response: “God, heal me.” God’s response: “My grace is sufficient.”
3 years later (2 years ago), more back problems (had 2 herniated disks at the end of that horrendous pregnancy) and more surgery. Diagnosis of Degenerative Lumbar Disease, which will turn into Degenerative Disk Disease. (which means I live in pain every day of my life) My response: “God, I can’t live in pain.” God’s response: “My grace is sufficient.”
God’s grace is sufficient. That grace will carry me through whatever we face in life. Right now, our financial situation is as bad as it could be with one of us working. But, God ensures we have enough to carry us through. Somehow.
With our church, we just finished a series called “Livin on a Prayer” (and yes, we played the Bon Jovi song). It was a 3 week series … Search Me, Break Me, Use Me. I am adding those prayers to this study as I walk through it. “Search me and know me, God. Know where I have unbelief. Break me. Break apart my pride, my selfishness, and my unbelief. And Use me the way You planned. Use me to love on others the way You have loved on others.”
Thank you for sharing Carlyn, I’m going to share in your prayer too! Psalm 139 has many of these words etched between the verses-I’ll use it to guide me in prayer. Will post it for the study under “Session Four” post.