The Possibilities Prayer

Everyone has experienced it: a problem so overwhelming it sucks all the air out of hope, leaving us crushed and consumed. When a problem is that big, we see only impossibilities, not possibilities. And when we can’t see possibilities, we can’t see God.

This isn’t a new problem. For today’s day of prayer, we will read the story of a father in Mark 9 who was experiencing this kind of spiritual exhaustion. And thousands of years before him, the book of Genesis tells us about a woman named Sarah who was hope-depleted, too. When God told Sarah that her impossible dream could come true, she laughed. So God had to remind her who he is:

“Is anything impossible for the LORD?”

Genesis 18:14 CSB

Maybe our problem is a circumstance we can’t change, a sin we can’t shake, or opposition we can’t overcome. Whatever it is, when it swallows us whole, our instinct will be to turn from God rather than toward him. 

But the father in Mark 9 shows us a different way. He shows us that people who pray see possibilities. Prayerless people see problems. The journey from prayerlessness to prayerfulness is the journey this father traveled.

The full story is found in Mark 9:14-29. Like many of us, this man was suffering because his son suffered. Few prayers are more desperate than the prayers of parents for their children. These prayers are difficult because we cannot control life to protect our children. Our first instinct is to fight, to figure out how to protect, save, or help them—but eventually we discover we cannot control life for them any more than we can control life for ourselves.

This father discovered this when he brought his son to Jesus’s disciples for help, but they couldn’t drive out the spirit that was causing his son to suffer (Mark 9:17-18). When Jesus arrived, the father explained his frustration. Jesus asked how long this had been happening. The father’s answer reveals the weight of his exhaustion:

“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

Mark 9:21-22 NIV

“From childhood.” An unending battle. When battles feel unending, we’re often consumed by the problem and see no possibilities. Notice his words: “if you can do anything.” Life wears us down until we start saying “if” and eventually stop asking altogether.

But in those moments, we need to listen to Jesus, who says there is no “if”—there is only “can.”

“ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” [24] Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:23-24 NIV

This is a story about a father, but he represents all of us when we see unsolvable problems and feel everything is an impossibility. The father leads us forward with his response to Jesus: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

This is the “Possibilities Prayer”—where we resist our spiritual exhaustion and hope depletion to honestly admit our unbelief and pray anyway. When we do this, God nurtures and grows our faith as we pray until we believe in him enough to turn our problems into possibilities.

The outcome? Complete healing. Mark 9:27 tells us that Jesus took the son by the hand, “lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.” The impossible became possible because a father was honest about his unbelief and prayed anyway.

His conversation with Jesus proves what we learned in Day 3 about doubt: God will work us through our stubborn unbelief if we’re honest enough to bring it to him (Mark 16:14).

What might God do for us when we bring him the belief we have, tangled as it is with unbelief?

Perception — Change how you see

“God, help me see that my unbelief is not rebellion—it is fatigue. Show me that spiritual exhaustion is real, that hope depletion happens to faithful people, that being worn down by unending battles doesn’t mean I’ve failed. Let me perceive my circumstances through your eyes: not as evidence that you’ve abandoned me, but as the very place where you want to meet me. Help me see that bringing my exhausted, depleted, unbelieving self to you is not weakness—it’s the beginning of a breakthrough.”

Process — Change how you think

“God, rewrite the inner script that tells me nothing can ever change. Transform the way I process impossibility. Help me catch myself when I start thinking in ‘ifs’—’f you can,’ ‘if it’s possible,’ ‘if there’s any hope’—and replace those with your truth: everything is possible for one who believes.” 

Purpose— Change what you live for

“God, teach me to offer you the belief I do have, not the belief I wish I had. Show me that you don’t require perfect faith; you receive honest faith, even when it’s tangled up with unbelief.”

Path — Change where you are going

“God, meet me in the middle of my contradiction: belief and unbelief intertwined. Lead me on the path where I can say ‘I do believe’ and ‘Help my unbelief’ in the same breath. Give me courage to pray when prayer feels pointless, to ask when asking feels futile, to hope when hope feels foolish. Show me that the path forward isn’t pretending I have faith I don’t have—it’s bringing the faith-unbelief mixture I do have to you and watching you transform the improbable into the inevitable.”

A song for your playlist

Lyric highlight:

No sign of snow around
And yet I go around
Hearing jingle bells ringing in my ear
Your promise must be the reason
The happy season is here
So I’m doing my Christmas dreaming
A little early this year