Faith

     There is a story in Matthew, chapter 9, about a man who brings his son, who was "possessed with a spirit" which "made him mute", to Jesus. The man had previously asked Jesus' disciples to cast it out and they had failed. They brought the boy to Jesus and the boy's father said "if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us!"   "And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."  Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe, help my unbelief."  Jesus commanded the spirit to come out of the boy then "took him by the hand and raised him: and he got up."  When the disciples questioned Jesus as to why they were unable to drive it out, he answered them, "This kind (of demon) cannot come out by anything but prayer."

    How many times do believers experience this kind of "unbelief" ?  I often struggle with believing He can do anything, but will he do it for me? 
   One day in Walmart, I prayed that God would forgive me for my "unbelief."  My daughter, Emma (who was around 4 or 5 at the time) and I had run into Walmart to look for a pumpkin shirt for my son.  I normally would never allow her to bring a toy with her into Walmart, but this day she asked if she could bring "Cosmo", a small bluish colored stuffed dog, and I said yes.  I was in a hurry and knew I was only going to make one stop in the toddler section to see if they had the shirt I wanted.  The shoes were next to the toddler section, so I made a quick run down the girls shoe aisle to see if anything caught my eye for Emma.  I remember Emma looking in the mirror at the end of the shoe aisle and said, "Look Momma, there is two of me and two of Cosmo." I quickly made my way to the toddler Halloween shirts, did not find anything, and we headed out the door.  Our next stop was Target.  When we got out of the car at Target, Emma asked me, "Momma, where's Cosmo?"
   Back to Walmart we went. We retraced our exact steps, including the jaunt down the shoe aisle.  I spoke to several sales ladies that were working in the area.  We checked the return section and the lost and found.  We retraced our steps for about the third time and came to a stop at the toddler shirts where we had looked for a shirt for Braden.  "Emma," I said, "You are going to have to pray that God will help us find Cosmo."  But because that unbelief was in the back of my mind, I added that we may still never find Cosmo, because God may let that be the natural consequence for not keeping better care of him. As she prayed, I prayed also.  Just a few weeks prior I had attended a bible study.  The subject had been the story in Matthew about the father, his son and his own "unbelief."  With that lesson fresh on my mind I prayed, "God, I believe that you can produce  Cosmo out of the thin air if you want to, but please forgive me for my unbelief.  Please do not punish my little girl for my unbelief." I heard Emma say, "Momma, I'm through praying."  Almost instantly, a thought came to me...Cosmo is a stuffed toy...Walmart sells stuffed toys.  We had not looked in the toy section.  With a sense of purpose I took Emma by the hand and told her that we were going to check the toy department.  As we quickly headed down the aisle to the toy section, we started to pass a Walmart manager when he stopped us. (There was absolutely no reason for him to think he needed to stop me...this was God's hand in the situation!!) He asked me if I needed help.  I told him our story and he asked to retrace our steps with us even though I explained that we had already done this.  He insisted, so we followed.  He spoke to the same ladies to whom we had already spoken.  We were making another pass by the shoes, on the way to the toys, when he stopped, told us to wait and headed up the shoe aisle to talk to a woman employee we had NOT spoken with before.  After a  minute of speaking with her, he motioned for me to join him.  He asked me to describe to the employee what I was looking for.  The words were barely out of my mouth when she reached into a shopping basket, just out of my sight, and pulled out Cosmo!!  She had a basket of returns that she was returning to the sales floor.  She had found Cosmo, and thinking he was a Walmart toy, she put him in her basket to return to the toy section.
     Emma cried tears of joy as she hugged Cosmo.  We thanked the manager and the employee who had found Cosmo and headed out.  We got as far as the camera section and I stopped Emma.  "Emma," I said, "We need to stop right now and give thanks to God."  So we both knelt in the aisle, next to the Crayola and Barbie cameras and thanked God for answering our prayers.  I did not care who saw or what they thought.
    There will be those naysayers who will say it was all a coincidence, but I know better.  God forgave my unbelief and he answered the prayer of a little girl who believed.  Faith in God and His promises to us is a POWERFUL, POWERFUL thing!!