Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17: 20, 21, NKJV.
Blessed LORD, in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, we enter Your presence. Please make Your Word plain before us. In His name we pray. Amen.
Today, as we continue to look at faith as it applies to prayer; we come upon this story that is found in three of the gospels, Matthew (17: 9-21), Mark (9: 14-29), and Luke (9: 37-43). It is the story of the demon-possessed boy, who his father described as “lunatic.” There are some differences in the way each author describes the incident.
The father had taken his son to be healed. He had obviously heard of the mighty wonders being performed by Jesus and His disciples (In chapter 3 of Mark, we find Jesus calling His disciples and enduing them with power from on high to preach the gospel, cast out devils, and heal all manner of diseases). It is quite possible that he was not aware that Jesus was absent that day. Once he arrived where the disciples were, not finding Jesus, probably in desperation, he decided to ask the disciples to help his son; confident that they had the power to do so.
Jesus descends from the mountain and finds the disciples frustrated and humiliated, because of their impotence to cast out this demon. The question is, what had hindered them from doing so? This is the questions the disciples asked Jesus, “Why could we not cast it out?” Jesus’ response was quite interesting, and quite profound, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you…”
In Romans 12: 3, we read the following, “For I say through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Emphasis provided. I quoted this text to make a very important point, we all have “a measure of faith!” There is no one who can say, “I have not been given any faith.” Nevertheless, like the parable of the unfaithful steward, we can each decide what we will do with our measure; invest it, or bury it (Matthew 25: 14-30).
Oftentimes, we believe it is the amount of faith, that we possess that makes a difference in our prayers being answered or not; but Jesus’ Words to His disciples, shatters that notion. Using the example of the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed, He makes known to them, that it is the work of faith, not the size, that removes the mountains that keep us from seeing the answers to our prayers.
What are some of the unanswered prayers that you are struggling with? Perhaps you are looking in the wrong places to find the reasons why your prayers have “not been answered.” Now you know that it most likely is not a lack of faith, unless you have buried your faith. In which case, you can unearth it, and begin to put it to use. We will continue with this thought tomorrow!