The Children for Christ by Andrew Murray

under the solemn truth Jesus utters here, that if the parent can believe
the child can be saved.
How this truth ought to affect us, our text tells us. With tears the father
cried, `Lord, I believe! help mine unbelief.’ In the agony of the thought
that his unbelief may keep the blessing from his child, in the
consciousness of how strong unbelief is still in himself, he bursts into
tears, and casts himself to confess at Jesus’ feet that unbelief, and ask
deliverance from it. It is amid these tears of penitence and confession
that the faith is exercised to which the victory is given. The devil is east
out, and the child is saved. Christ’s blessed and most heart-searching
word had done its work; it had revealed the unbelief, but also wakened
the faith that brought the blessing.
Christ’s word must do the same with every parent, with every father,
who pleads for a child’s liberation from Satan’s power. A father’s tears
have power. There must be confession and humbling wherever there is
to be strong faith. There must be the conviction and confession of the
sin of unbelief: that it has been the cause of the blessing being withheld,
and that we are verily guilty in being unbelieving. When the disciples
asked the Master why they could not cast out this devil, He told them it
was because of their unbelief, and that this unbelief was caused by their
life not being one of prayer and fasting. Unbelief is not, as many think,
a weakness, inexplicable and beyond our power. Unbelief has its
reasons: it is the indication of the state of heart. The world, the worldly
man, cannot believe. The self-righteous, the proud man, cannot believe.
It is only the pure in heart, the humble, the soul that thirsts for God,
and forsakes all to follow Christ, that can be strong in faith. And
therefore the first step in the path of an overcoming faith is the
170