The Power of Unbelief

We find many instances in the Gospels where people were amazed by Jesus.  They were amazed by his power and his miracles.  They were amazed by his teaching.  They were amazed by his love and grace.  They were amazed by his authority.

But we only see two instances of Jesus being amazed by people.  Once was with the faith of the centurion.  The other is in today's reading in Mark 6.  Sadly, Jesus wasn't amazed by their faith or belief, but rather by their lack of faith and belief in his power, authority, love and miracles.

Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, teaching in the synagogue.  The people, as was often the case, were amazed at his teaching.  Mark also mentions that they were amazed by his miracles and they were especially amazed because they knew he was from Nazareth.  

In v.3, Mark says, "and they took offense at him."

Amazement with something doesn't always mean that we believe in it or trust it.  We can be amazed by a magic show, but know in our hearts that it's only sleight of hand.  We can be amazed by a spectacular sunset or majestic mountains, but believe in our hearts that there's no God behind it - that it's just a product of evolutionary processes.  

Verse 5 is the money verse here though: "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them."

In this verse, we see that there is power in unbelief.  Maybe as much power as there is in belief.  The unbelief of the people in Nazareth prevented Jesus from doing many of the miracles that he longed to do in that town.  This shows us something vitally important in the life of faith - seeing Jesus move on our behalf requires belief in His ability to do so.

This begs the question: what are you missing out on in your life because of your lack of belief or faith?  The question isn't "Does Jesus want to?" The question is "Do you want Him to?"   Do you want God to bless you?

This isn't an attempt to reduce Jesus to a genie in a Bible.  We don't rub the Bible and get everything we want.  And this isn't an attempt to explain why we don't always see Jesus move in the ways that we'd like Him to, even when our desires seem to align with Scripture.

This is simply to say that blessing comes through obedience.  And obedience comes through believing that God’s Word is trustworthy for our lives.   It's happened to me over and over again in my life and ministry.  I go through periods of doubt and frustration wondering why God isn't doing what I want Him to or expect Him to do, and then one day I say, "Well, what do I believe God wants to here?  Have I prayed for this?  Have I expected it?  Do I believe that God can do it?  Am I being obedient to what God is calling me to do right now?"  And not always, but often, I will see God move in a way that I didn't expect him to move.  

The result?  Amazement.

A lot of times it has to do with stubbornness and clinging to sin.  When we openly defy God's commands and choose to live our lives the way we want instead of the way He wants, we're displaying unbelief and it wields great power in our lives.  When you're miserable, the first thing to ask yourself is this: "Am I being obedient to Jesus?  Am living as if I believe that what He says is true?"  If you’re not, you're unleashing the power of unbelief in your life.  We’re essentially like the people of Nazareth: we’re taking offense at what God calls us to do.  How can we ever expect God to do what we want Him to do next when we can’t be faithful in doing what He’s calling us to do right now?

I've come to realize something in my faith journey: I demonstrate faith through obedience.  It's a Scriptural principle.  When we are obedient, we are in lock step with God's design and plan for our lives.  If I'm not obedient to something that God commands me to do, I'm not faithful.  There's not really a middle ground - partial obedience is disobedience.  

 Lack of obedience means that we lack faith to take God at his Word.  Obedience unleashes God's blessing in our lives and when God’s blessing is unleashed in our lives, amazement follows.