Devotional For the Week 9 August 2004

The Gospel Encounters: If you wonder your prayer really matters!”
Reference - Mark 9: 14-29

The story of the demoniac child

While Jesus and the other three disciples were away on the Mount of Transfiguration, the rest of the disciples who were waiting were requesting to deliver a child who was demon possessed. The outcome was a failure. When Jesus appeared before the crowd they complained to him about what had happened. However when the boy was brought to Jesus and he rebuked the spirit and it left the boy.

The disciples were intrigued by what they saw and they wanted to know why they couldn’t drive out the spirit? Jesus replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” (Some manuscript put is as “prayer and fasting”).

Question: How do we pray a prayer so filled with faith that it can move mountains?

Two principles to embrace when we pray:

1. Faith comes from looking at God and not at the mountain.

In other words, when we pray we must shift our focus from the size of the mountain to the sufficiency of the mountain mover (God).

In the Gospel narrative, God can only do the deliverance from demonic possession. Our daily prayer and intercession prepare us to trust God and to pray in faith. Mark 9:29 says, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” Faith does not exist in a vacuum but the faith that Jesus spoke about is the ardent trust in the Almighty God. It is build upon by our constant communion and obedience to Him.

2. God gives us faith as we walk with Him.

The ability to trust God in difficult is of God’s grace and it comes from abiding in God and thus leads to a deep trust in Him. For example in Joshua 3 – Joshua walked in obedience to believe God to stop the flow of the Jordan River and God did to let the Israelite crossed through it. How did he do this? He knew God. He spent time in seeking God. He trusted God. He believed and stepped out in obedience. Joshua looked at the sufficiency of God, the mountain mover and not at the impossibility of the situation i.e. the Jordan River, the mountain.

Reflection:
What is your mountain? Have you been standing under that shadow for a long time that you have grown accustomed to the darkness? Do you feel that your prayers are useless, even if you do pray?

The challenge is to shift the focus of your prayer. Don’t spend much time describing your mountain to the Lord. He know what it is. Instead, move your attention to the Mountain Mover – see His glory, power and faithfulness. Start walking in faith, follow His leading and watch that mountain step aside.

Pastor Vincent Goh