In Sunday's message Troy talked about a man who brought Jesus his son, possessed and made mute by an evil spirit. The man admitted some doubt..."I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)
After Jesus cast out the spirit the disciples were unable to dispel, they were again alone with Jesus and they asked Him why it did not work for them.
Jesus replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."
What was Jesus was saying?
- That there are different kinds of spirits and that this really tough one will only listen to Me? No, because He expected (v. 19) the disciples could have driven out the spirit.
- That they should not only command the spirit to come out, but they should also pray? Yes, I believe Jesus meant the disciples should pray, which connects them to the Father -- upon whom they depend for answers. They should not for one minute forget Who was doing the work. It was not by their own power, but by the Lord's.
When Jesus said this can only happen by prayer, I believe He was saying,
"Stay connected, keep trusting, keep depending, keep looking to Me...persist in praying it through."
Many, many, many in the Bible had long unanswered prayers. We are not alone if we are still waiting for a prayer to be answered. If we did not have these great needs and prayer to draw us close, we'd start to think things happened by our own power.
But, by our simple act of obedience (prayer), we do draw closer to God, we become more connected, we increase our faith, our trust, our dependence. We see Him at work in us and around us, and we know that our prayer has either already been answered (the answer is not yet or I have something better) or the answer is on its way (His timing is everything!).
God knows if we need the answer now or if we need more time with Him. Either way, we win. Our prayer journey becomes sweet time with Him and the answer is worth the wait.
Dear Lord, You call us to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12) I pray You would strengthen our faith and keep our eyes on You. You are the God of the universe and we trust in Your perfect plan.
This is a part of an Abiding blog post I wrote in September 2010 and it fit so well with the wrap-up of our "More Than a Feeling" faith series that I wanted to revisit it.
