Title: Help My Unbelief
Speaker: Grant Hugo
Date: 9th August 2026
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Summary
“There’s a big difference between some unbelief and not believing.” That line sits at the centre of this episode, which looks closely at a father in Mark 9 who brings his son to Jesus and cries out, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
The episode starts by setting two kinds of unbelief side by side. In Matthew 13, the people of Jesus’ home town write him off as the carpenter’s son, and few miracles happen there. The father in Mark 9 is different. He knows Jesus is the answer; he just cannot quite hold on to it. From there the focus turns to tone. Words on a page carry no facial expression, so when Jesus says O faithless generation, is he fed up, or urging his followers to remember what they have already seen?
Along the way comes a simple distinction worth keeping: faith is a noun, but believing is something you do. The woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and two blind men who were healed show belief in action, and the episode finishes with Thomas, who flatly said he would not believe. The closing thought is encouraging: help my unbelief is not an accusation but an invitation to remember what God has already done, a theme also explored in Luke and Theophilus.
Key Points
- Struggling to believe is not the same as refusing to believe. The father in Mark 9 wanted to trust Jesus, while Thomas said outright that he would not believe without proof.
- The people of Jesus’ home town saw him as nothing more than the local carpenter, and their lack of respect limited what happened there.
- Tone matters when reading the Bible. O faithless generation can sound like frustration, but it may be closer to a reminder of everything Jesus had already shown and given.
- Translations shape how a moment lands. The King James says Jesus was moved with compassion toward the leper, while some modern versions describe him as indignant or angry.
- The disciples had already been given power to heal and cast out evil spirits, yet this time they could not. That is a reminder that everyone has moments of unbelief.
- Faith is a noun and believing is a verb. Faith makes believing possible, and believing is something you actively do through prayer, reading and encouraging one another.
- Answers to prayer do not follow a neat formula. Some of the biggest breakthroughs come after what feel like the weakest prayers.
- Help my unbelief is not a charge laid against anyone. It is an invitation to stop, remember what God has already done, and keep seeking him.
Reference Scriptures
- Mark 9:24
- Matthew 13:53-58
- Mark 8:27
- Mark 9:1-13
- Mark 9:14-19
- Mark 1:40-42
- Mark 9:20-27
- Luke 9:1-2
- Luke 9:40-41
- Luke 10:17-20
- Mark 16:15-17
- Matthew 21:22
- Matthew 9:20-22
- Matthew 9:26-30
- 2 Timothy 1:12
- Ephesians 1:6-14
- Psalm 37:5
- Proverbs 16:3
- John 20:24-31