Mark 9:25-29 (NLT)
When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”
Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer."
Prayer. Communication with GOD. A simple act. One that requires only verbally or cognitively expressing yourself to Yahweh. It’s the hottest topic in Christendom today, with billions of books, blogs, and brochures relating how, when, where, why, when, and why to do it. Written about in the Bible over and over again. And here it is again in the Gospel, prayer being the only way to deliver the man from the evil spirit.
So my question is this: Why don’t we do it?
Sure we pray. We pray before, during, and after worship service. We bless our meals. We cover our kids with bedtime prayers. We may even venture a prayer during the week. But are we in “continual prayer,” a constant state of communication with Christ?
I need not go any further. Knowledge of prayer isn’t our problem; practicing it is. To unload all the information about prayer will do neither of us any good at this point. But practicing it is another matter completely.
Application: Let’s get started with this now. Spend the rest of your devotional time simply praying. Then make an effort to talk and/or listen to GOD all day.
