Oh my, do I have a mountain of work to do these next days! Sunday’s Gospel talked about casting out demons. The disciples had cast some out (Mark 6:13), but in Mark 9 they came across a demon they couldn’t budge. “Why could we not cast it out?” (Mark 9:28) Down here in my little life, I don’t know how I’ll attack the mountain, let alone cast out demons.
Jesus: “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (Mark 9:29). Think about the essence of prayer. It’s an admission that we need help, that our self-reliance has run out. Prayer is creatures going to their Creator. Prayer is people who need deliverance going to their rescuer and Savior. Prayer is people not completely sanctified going to the Spirit who alone can sanctify us wholly, spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). You can pray thinking “Me and Jesus” or “God is my co-pilot,” but that’s double-minded (James 1:8). Prayer is being done with yourself. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). This kind of prayer is a life-style, not just the occasional head bowed and hands folded, “prayer without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) that takes “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4). That’s the way to move the mountains before you today (Matthew 17:20).
The only One who fits that description of prayer is Jesus. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). That description of prayer certainly doesn’t describe me, or you either, I assume. That’s why “I need Thy presence ev’ry passing hour; what but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r? Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me!” (Lutheran Service Book, 878, 1)
Isn’t there something strangely reassuring to know that no matter how faltering my prayer life is, I’m hanging onto the One who is perfectly united to the Father?
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