Our Daily Bread Devotional 28th February 2024 Topic: “Help My Unbelief!”

Our Daily Bread Devotional 28th February 2024 Wednesday ODB Message

Our Daily Bread Devotional 28th February 2024 TOPIC: “Help My Unbelief!”

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Numbers 20–22; Mark 7:1–13

KEY VERSE: Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Mark 9:14–24

14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.

17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

19 “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Our Daily Bread Devotional 28th February 2024 Insight By K. T. Sim
In sending out His disciples to preach about His kingdom, Jesus gave them His authority over impure spirits (Mark 6:7). After three of His disciples saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain (9:2), a distraught father brought a demon-possessed boy to the remaining disciples, but they couldn’t heal him. This lack of miraculous healing was attributed to unbelief (vv. 17-19). The father eventually confessed his lack of faith, “Help me overcome my unbelief!” (v. 24). Jesus told His disciples that “this kind can come out only by prayer” (v. 29) and confronted their failure to pray. In not praying, they had depended on their own authority and not on Jesus’ authority to heal.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 28th February 2024 MESSAGE:

“Where is my Faith?—even deep down right in there is nothing but emptiness & darkness. . . . If there be God—please forgive me.”

The author of those words might surprise you: Mother Teresa. Beloved and renowned as a tireless servant of the poor in Calcutta, India, Mother Teresa quietly waged a desperate war for her faith over five decades. After her death in 1997, that struggle came to light when portions of her journal were published in the book Come Be My Light.

What do we do with our doubts or feelings of God’s absence? Those moments may plague some believers more than others. But many faithful believers in Jesus may, at some point in their lives, experience moments or seasons of such doubts.

I’m thankful that Scripture has given us a beautiful, paradoxical prayer that expresses both faith and the lack thereof. In Mark 9, Jesus encounters a father whose son had been demonically tormented since childhood (v. 21). When Jesus said that the man must have faith—“Everything is possible for one who believes”—the man responded, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (vv. 23-24).

This honest, heartfelt plea invites those of us who struggle with doubt to give it to God, trusting that He can fortify our faith and hold on to us firmly amid the deepest, darkest valleys we’ll ever traverse. (ODB Message By: Adam Holz)

REFLECT: When have you wrestled with doubt in your spiritual journey? What spiritual resources helped you hold on to your faith?

PRAY: Dear Father, sometimes I doubt. Please help me when I struggle to feel Your presence.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 28th February 2024, Wednesday ODB Message. Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODB) is a Christian organization founded by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938. It is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with over 600 employees. It produces several devotional publications, including Our Daily Bread. our daily bread devotional for today audio our daily bread booklet.