When you come to Christ, the old life and the devil who is the enemy of your soul, will do everything they can to prevent you coming. The old life doesn't want to let go of you; the devil doesn't want to lose his grip on you. Hell doesn't want to give you up. These powers will make every effort to retain you. As you draw near to Christ, you will find yourself thinking the opposite of what you want. You will find yourself thinking, ‘Do I want this? Should I do this? This will make me miserable. This will take me into the unknown, and I'm afraid of it. This will mean a change in my life. This will mean I will have to give up my sin. This will mean I have to serve the Lord and love him. This will mean I won't be able to be as boastful and as proud and as selfish and as ill tempered anymore. He will take a lot of those things away from me. Do I want this?’ There will be a struggle, and it will cast doubt on everything you are thinking. ‘You can't believe that. Your friends think this is all rubbish and nonsense. Don't go any further into this.’ That is what will happen. The doubts will come and the fears. The father of the vexed boy gave the perfect answer to Christ. ‘Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.’ It is a prayer that Christ will always answer. ‘Lord, I want to come. I am coming, but I have got some doubts. Help me Lord’, and he will. He’ll help you dispel those doubts. He’ll help you come to him.
God helps us, even if we ask him to give us the faith to believe. If you go down the high street, you will never see a shop that has in the window, a notice which says, ‘If you desire these goods and you can’t afford them, come in and we’ll help you pay for them.’ You will never see that in a shop window. But that's what Christ says. ‘If you're coming to me and you’ve got doubts or hesitation or anxiety, or you don't feel you have enough faith, then come to me and ask for it, and I will give it to you.’ That is the mercy and the kindness of the Lord. ‘Lord, help thou mine unbelief’, because you're trying to believe who he is: the eternal Son of God; what he's done: he died on Calvary for sinners, and his promises to receive all who come to him.