Increase My Faith: What Jesus Taught in Mark 9
Short answer: When we pray to increase our faith, we are asking for something the Bible treats seriously and gently. In Mark 9:14-29 a desperate father cries out to Jesus, and Jesus meets him not with a lecture about the size of his faith but with mercy. Faith is not a quantity we manufacture by trying harder; it is trust in a God who is able. Jesus ties the disciples' failure to prayer, and elsewhere Scripture says faith comes by hearing the word of God. So the biblical path to greater faith is not self-effort but drawing near to Christ through his word and prayer, and resting on his ability rather than our own.
The father's cry in Mark 9:24
The setting of Mark 9:14-29 is tense. Jesus comes down from the mountain of transfiguration to find a crowd surrounding his disciples and scribes arguing with them. A father has brought his son, who is tormented by a spirit that seizes him, throws him down, and makes him foam at the mouth. The disciples had tried to cast it out and could not. Into that failure and confusion the father speaks words that have echoed through every generation of anxious believers. He cries out for help, and his honesty is striking: he believes, and yet he struggles with unbelief at the same time.
What makes this cry so important is that Jesus does not rebuke the man for the weakness of his faith. He does not say the man needs to generate more confidence before help can come. He receives the cry. The father's prayer is not a polished statement of certainty; it is a raw admission of mixed trust. And that is precisely the sort of prayer God answers. If you have ever wanted to increase your faith, this man is a companion for you. He does not pretend. He brings his doubt along with his hope, and Christ meets him there.
Many readers notice that the father's words come in response to Jesus' statement about believing. The man's cry is often summarized as a plea to help his unbelief. He recognizes that even his faith needs to be upheld by the one he is trusting. That is a profound insight. Faith is not a self-generated resource that we produce on demand; it is a reliance on God that itself depends on God's help. The prayer to increase faith is therefore already an act of faith, because it turns to God as the one who can supply what we lack.
So the first lesson of this passage is that honest weakness is not disqualifying. The father did not wait until his faith was strong before coming to Jesus. He came with what he had, and he asked for help with what he did not have. That pattern runs through Scripture. God is not offended by the trembling prayer. He is not impressed by the confident one who never admits need. The cry to increase faith is answered, but it is answered by mercy, not by the size of our certainty.
Faith is not a measurable quantity
When the apostles say to the Lord, "Increase our faith." (Luke 17:5), and Jesus answers with a saying about a mustard seed, the point is not that faith is measured in milligrams. The comparison is not about quantity but about reality. A mustard seed is tiny, yet it is alive. A living trust, however small, connects a person to a God who is able to do what no amount of human confidence could accomplish. Faith's power is not stored in the believer; it comes from the one trusted.
This reshapes how we should think about the request to increase our faith. If faith were a substance we accumulate, then the goal would be to feel more certain, to generate more positive emotion, to eliminate every doubt before we act. But the Bible consistently treats faith as trust directed toward God. Its strength is measured by the character of the one trusted, not by the intensity of our feelings. A weak hand on a strong rope is still held. That is why Jesus can speak of faith that moves mountains without turning faith into a magic force.
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen." The verse defines faith by its object and its confidence, not by its size. The assurance rests on God's promise. The proof is found in what God has said, not in what we can see. So when we want to increase our faith, the answer is not to stare harder at our own hearts. It is to look more steadily at God's word and character. Faith grows as the object of faith becomes clearer and more trusted.
This also guards us against despair. If faith were a fixed quantity, then a person with little faith would be stuck. But because faith rests on God, even a small faith can be sufficient for great things. Jesus' point is not that we should be content with weak faith, but that weak faith in a great God is not weak in effect. The question is not how much faith you have, but how great the God you are trusting is.
Why prayer is the answer in Mark 9:29
After Jesus casts out the spirit and the disciples ask privately why they could not, he tells them plainly that this kind could come out only by prayer. The disciples had been given authority earlier in Mark's Gospel, yet here they failed. Their failure was not a shortage of technique; it was a matter of dependence. They had begun to treat the power as their own. Jesus redirects them to prayer, which is the posture of a person who knows they cannot accomplish the work themselves.
Prayer is therefore not a technique for cranking up faith pressure. It is the relationship in which faith lives. To pray is to confess that we are not self-sufficient, that our help comes from the Lord. If you want to increase your faith, the path is not to isolate yourself and try to believe harder. It is to come more often and more honestly into the presence of God. The disciples could not cast out the spirit because they had not been depending on God in prayer, and we cannot grow in trust by relying on our own resources.
Some readers wonder about the place of fasting in this verse, since some manuscripts add that word. It is wise to be careful here. The supplied text says prayer, and that is enough. The main point is clear: the work of God is done in dependence on God. Whether or not fasting is included, the principle holds. Means of grace such as prayer, fasting, and Scripture reading are not ways of earning power; they are ways of placing ourselves before the God who gives it. They do not make faith grow as a self-improvement project but as a relationship deepens.
This also means that unanswered prayers and failed attempts are not the end of the story. The disciples failed, and Jesus used that failure to teach them. God often uses our weakness to draw us back to dependence. If you have prayed and felt nothing changed, that does not mean your faith is worthless. It may mean God is teaching you to keep coming, to keep trusting, to keep praying. The increase of faith is often slow and hidden, like a seed growing underground.
Faith comes by hearing, not by striving
Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This is one of the clearest answers to the question of how faith grows. It grows by hearing. Not by manufacturing emotions, not by working up confidence, but by receiving the message of God. When we read, hear, and meditate on Scripture, the Spirit uses that word to create and strengthen trust. The word of God is the seedbed of faith. If you want more faith, you must stay near the word that produces it.
This is why preaching, reading, and studying the Bible are not optional extras for the Christian life. They are the ordinary means by which faith is nourished. A person who neglects Scripture and then asks why their faith feels thin is like a person who stops eating and wonders why they are weak. The remedy is not to try harder but to return to the food. The promises of God, the character of God, the works of God in history, the gospel itself, all of these are the content that faith feeds on. Faith is not a blind leap; it is trust built on what God has said.
Notice also that faith comes by hearing, which means it is often a communal reality. We hear the word together. The father in Mark 9 came to Jesus, and the disciples were part of the story. Faith is strengthened in the company of others who speak truth to us, who pray with us, who remind us of God's promises when we forget. Isolation starves faith; fellowship feeds it. If you want to increase your faith, put yourself where the word is being taught and where other believers can encourage you.
The word of God also corrects our false pictures of God. Much unbelief is not intellectual doubt but a distorted view of God's character. When we hear again that God is merciful, faithful, and able, our trust is renewed. The father's cry was met by Jesus' willingness. The more we hear of who God actually is, the more we are able to entrust ourselves to him. So the increase of faith is not a mystery reserved for a special few; it is the ordinary fruit of staying near God's word.
Faith without works is not the whole story
James 2:14-26 asks, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?" James is not contradicting Paul or Jesus. He is describing what genuine faith looks like. A faith that never moves a person to action, never produces love, never shows itself in obedience, is not the living trust the Bible describes. It may be a verbal claim, but it is not saving faith. This matters for our topic because it tells us that increasing faith is not about a warmer feeling; it is about a life that increasingly trusts God enough to act.
James uses the examples of Abraham and Rahab to show that faith was made complete by what they did. This does not mean they earned their standing before God. It means their actions demonstrated that their trust was real. In the same way, the father in Mark 9 acted on his faith by bringing his son to Jesus, even with his doubts. His faith was imperfect, but it moved him toward Christ. That is the pattern. Faith that grows will show itself in prayer, in obedience, in love for others, and in a willingness to bring our needs to God.
Some Christians find James troubling because it seems to make salvation depend on works. But the whole of Scripture holds together. We are saved by grace through faith, not by works, and yet the faith that saves is never alone. It produces fruit. So when you ask God to increase your faith, expect that he may answer by giving you opportunities to trust him in action. He may call you to step out, to serve, to forgive, to give, to speak. Each act of obedience, done in reliance on him, is a way faith is strengthened. Faith grows by being used.
This also means that the increase of faith is not measured only by how confident we feel but by how we live. A person may feel full of doubt and yet quietly obey God, and that obedience is faith at work. We should not despise small, halting steps. The father's mixed cry was answered. Our mixed obedience is also met with grace. God is patient with the growth of faith, and he uses the very acts of trust he calls us to in order to deepen it.
Have faith in God, not in your faith
Mark 11:22-24 records Jesus saying, "Have faith in God." The object is stated plainly. The command is not to have faith in faith, or to believe in the power of believing, but to have faith in God. This is the cure for the anxious self-focus that often accompanies the request to increase our faith. When we turn inward to inspect our faith, we find only more reasons to doubt. When we turn to God, we find a rock. The disciples were told to trust God, not to measure their own confidence.
This distinction is crucial. A popular misreading of these passages turns faith into a force that we wield, as though enough certainty could guarantee a desired outcome. But Jesus' teaching in Mark 11 is set in the context of trusting God, and the rest of Scripture makes clear that God's will is not overridden by the intensity of our belief. Faith is not a way of controlling God; it is a way of resting in him. The one who trusts God submits to his will, even when the answer is not what we hoped. That is deeper faith, not weaker faith.
So when you pray to increase your faith, you can pray with confidence because you are asking for something God delights to give. But you can also pray with surrender, because you are asking to trust him more, not to manipulate him. The father in Mark 9 did not demand a particular outcome; he asked for help. The disciples did not command the spirit by their own power; they needed prayer. Faith grows as we release our grip on our own control and place it in God's hands.
This is why the increase of faith and the increase of humility go together. The more we see God, the smaller we appear to ourselves, and the more willing we are to depend on him. That is not a sad thing. It is freedom. The pressure to generate enough faith to secure our own outcomes is lifted. We simply trust the God who is able. He is the one who begins and completes the work, and he is faithful even when our faith is small.
How to pray when you want more faith
If you want to increase your faith, begin by praying honestly. Tell God what you actually believe and what you struggle to believe. The father in Mark 9 did not clean up his prayer before bringing it. He said what was true. You can do the same. There is no need to perform certainty you do not feel. God already knows your heart, and he invites you to come with it. A prayer that admits doubt while asking for help is a real prayer, and it is one God has promised to hear.
Second, stay in the word. Since faith comes by hearing the word of God, make the Scriptures part of your regular life. Read them, hear them taught, memorize them, and meditate on them. Let the promises of God and the character of God fill your mind. This is not a mechanical formula, but it is the ordinary way God nourishes trust. If you have neglected the Bible, returning to it is not a guilt-driven duty; it is a hungry person coming back to food. Let the word do its work in you over time.
Third, pray with others and for others. Faith is strengthened in community. Ask trusted believers to pray for you, and pray for them. The father came to Jesus with his son; the disciples were together when Jesus taught them about prayer. You are not meant to grow alone. Share your struggles, hear the testimonies of others, and let their faith encourage yours. And keep praying even when answers seem slow. The disciples failed at first, and Jesus used that to teach them dependence.
Finally, act on what you do believe, even if it is small. Bring your need to God. Obey what he has already shown you. Serve, give, forgive, and step out in trust. Faith grows by being exercised. And remember that the God you are trusting is able. The goal is not to have a lot of faith in your faith, but to have real faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead. He is worthy of your trust, and he is patient with your growth.
Biblical fidelity check
Mark 9:14-29 establishes several things clearly. It shows that Jesus has authority over unclean spirits, that the disciples' failure was connected to prayer, and that a father's honest, mixed faith was met with mercy. It does not teach that faith is a measurable substance we accumulate, nor does it promise that a certain intensity of belief will always produce a chosen outcome. The text does not define the exact relationship between the father's faith and his son's healing as a formula for us to copy. It is a narrative about Jesus' compassion and power, not a technique for guaranteed results.
A common misreading is to treat these verses as a manual for getting whatever we want by believing hard enough. That turns faith into a power we control and makes God subject to us. But the passage shows a father who asks for help with his unbelief and a Lord who acts in mercy. Faith is trust in God, not a force to manipulate him. The disciples did not fail because they lacked the right words but because they were not depending on God in prayer. So the faithful application is not to strain for more certainty but to turn to God, hear his word, and rest in his ability. Where believers differ, they differ on secondary questions like the role of fasting in this account; the central call to trust God is clear.
Other passages that speak to Mark 9:14-29
If you want to study the increase of faith more deeply, several related articles will help. You can read about how trust in God relates to everyday decisions in Is investing in the stock market compatible with Christian faith? A Biblical Guide. For the relationship between trust and action, see James 2:17 Meaning: Is Faith Without Works Dead? and the fuller treatment in James 2:14–26: Faith Without Works Is Dead. To understand the nature of faith itself, read What does Hebrews 11:1 mean by faith?. Together these passages show that faith is trust in God that shows itself in a life of dependence and obedience.
Frequently asked questions
Does Jesus rebuke the father for his unbelief in Mark 9?
No. In Mark 9:14-29, Jesus does not shame the man for his mixed faith. He receives the father's honest cry and acts in mercy. The passage presents the man as a model of honest prayer rather than an example of failure. If anything, the disciples' quiet failure to cast out the spirit is addressed more directly later when Jesus speaks about prayer. The father's struggle is met with compassion, which encourages us to bring our own doubts to Christ rather than hiding them.
How do I practically increase my faith?
Scripture gives ordinary means. Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the word of God, so stay in Scripture and hear it taught. Pray honestly, as the father did, asking God to help your unbelief. Pray with other believers and let their faith encourage yours. Then act on what you already believe, obeying God in small steps. Faith is not produced by straining to feel more certain; it grows as you draw near to God through his word, prayer, and the fellowship of his people over time.
Is a weak faith still real faith?
Yes. The Bible measures faith by its object, not its size. A small, living trust in a great God accomplishes what no amount of self-confidence could. Jesus spoke of faith like a mustard seed to show that even a little genuine trust is powerful because of the God it rests on. The father in Mark 9 had imperfect faith and was still answered. Weak faith is not the same as no faith. If you are trusting Christ at all, however tremblingly, you are held by him.
