“Someone from the crowd answered Him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to You. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.’” – Mark 9:17-18
They couldn’t… The problem was not a lack of authority. Jesus had granted the disciples authority to drive out demons already (Mark 6:7). The problem was not lack of experience. The disciples had personally experienced Jesus’ power to provide (Mark 6:42-44), to supersede nature (Mark 6:51), and to heal (Mark 6:56). The problem was lack of faith. “If you can? Everything is possible for the one who believes” (Mark 9:23). Even faithful disciples can find themselves defeated when their faith is lagging.
What is the cure for lagging faith? “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer” (Mark 9:29). Sometimes, we face an intractable foe that the Lord allows as an opportunity to build our faith through prayer. The more entrenched the enemy, the more our prayer requires a sustained, robust faith. We do not develop that sustained, robust faith apart from experiencing God in prayer.
For what have you been praying for more than a day? A week? A year? A decade? Don’t stop simply because you have not seen the answer. Add to your prayer the prayer for faith, and add to your prayer for faith prayers of gratitude for what you have already seen the Lord do.
Think These Things 