"Then the disciples came to Jesus privately
and said, 'Why could we not drive it out?' And He said to them, 'Because
of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have
faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move
from here to there," and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to
you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.'"
(Matthew 17:19-21 NASB)
Every Monday I do the laundry for myself and
my two year old granddaughter. I use a lot of spray stain remover on her
clothes. One week I discovered a pair of powder blue jeans in her
hamper. She had obviously been playing in a mud puddle the last time she
wore them. I noticed that her mom had already pre-sprayed them but I
wondered if it would be enough to actually get these jeans clean.
When the wash cycle was complete and Ade and I
were loading the clothes in the dryer, I grabbed those powder blue jeans
to examine them. They really didn't look much cleaner than they did
before the wash. I realized that this kind of stain needed something
more: good old fashion scrubbing.
Using a bar of Sunlight soap I went to work,
rubbing the soap on the stains and then scrubbing hard with a brush. I
repeated the process numerous times and then tossed the jeans back in
with the next load. This time those pants came out looking like new.
Sometimes doing what we always do in the way of prayer doesn't always
bring us the results we want either. Sometimes it takes more than just a
few minutes here or there to know just how we ought to pray. It takes an
act of total devotion to God and His cause. In the Bible we see this
type of devotion is often joined with the words prayer and fasting.
Prayer and fasting take us a step deeper in our faith as it requires us
to really believe that if we set apart time and deprive ourselves of
something which is important to us, totally having a single minded
devotion toward God, that we may see totally different results then we
might otherwise have known. The disciples when faced with the healing of
an ill child failed, which confused them, for they had done the things
they normally did when the boy was brought to them.
ut Jesus rebuked them and let them know that sometimes it takes more
than what we normally do to get the results we want and need to reap.
Scrubbing those jeans took me extra time and energy but it was worth the
effort. Setting aside specific times of concentrated prayer and fasting
would also seem worth it when we read the various Scriptures where this
discipline was employed.
So today, if this is something we do not normally do, let us consider
this idea of scrubbing away some unnecessary chores or thoughts or
habits to make room for time devoted to a deeper walk with God by
creating a time for prayer and fasting. Make it a time for listening and
receiving God's wisdom in regards to what to and how to pray. And then
wait with hopeful expectation, for when we have faith as small as a
mustard seed nothing will be impossible for us.
Prayer:Father God, prayer and fasting is a
spiritual discipline which Jesus, the prophets and the apostles
employed. May we, by faith, also be diligent to follow their example
that a harvest of results, that otherwise may never happen, be reaped
within Your Kingdom as well as within our souls. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen.
Lynne
Phepps
Atlin, B.C.
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