Some things are hard to believe.
Isaiah prophesies that the powerful kingdoms harassing Judah from the north will be overturned within a generation. All Ahaz needs is faith: “If you do not establish your faith, you will not be established” (Isaiah 7:9b). Knowing Ahaz’s faith needs help, Isaiah tells him to ask for a sign, which Ahaz resists, fearing to admit what God already knows: that his faith is weak. Isaiah responds not in frustration, but in God’s faithfulness: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Gabriel tells Zechariah that, like Abraham and Sarah, he and his wife are going to have a child in their old age. Zechariah reasonably questions the angel, just as Mary will when he appears to her. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1:18). Gabriel’s answer is not the arrogant rebuke of an offended superior, but the promise of a sign to provoke faith in a man with not enough of it. “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time” (Luke 1:19-20).
When a man qualifies the request for Jesus to heal his son with the phrase, “But if you can do anything…” (Mark 9:22), Jesus’ correction amounts to an invitation: “The question is not whether I can do it. The question is whether you can believe” (Mark 9:23). The child’s father responds like Zechariah, but more directly: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). And Jesus does—heal his son, and strengthen his faith.
Perhaps the hardest thing to believe is how faithfully God softens our doubt and strengthens our belief. But you can believe it. He does. And if you don’t, he still will, because he is faithful even when we are not.