Monday after Reminiscere
Posted on March 1, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Mark 9:17-29 (NKJV)
9:17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”
And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”
29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
Devotion
Self-importance and lack of faith go hand-in-hand. If we resist the Holy Spirit and think that our wants and will are more important than humbly praying “Thy will be done,” then we need the Lord to help our unbelief. Evil spirits plague us with pride and vanity more than they attack people with convulsions or other such signs of possession. Unfortunately, few see this as a serious problem and seek help from the Lord. Instead, we are wrongly encouraged to think that God ought to submit to our whims and that manipulating others in the name of “help” or “concern” for them is noble.
Christ calls us to be faithful. He calls us to love and serve in humble fulfillment of our vocations and duties. One application of His Words to the disciples about prayer and fasting is fulfilled in the lives of His people. The devil attacks all of us, but humble prayer and faithful discipline—which come from God’s Holy Spirit—are powerful means of driving away the evil one and his influence.
The Lord is our help and our righteousness, which means He teaches us and guides us. Faith seeks His will and kingdom. Unbelief focuses on getting what we want from Him, but faith looks past our own wants and focuses on the cross of our eternal life. And His righteousness teaches us to pray that all things work to serve the message of that Gospel.
Prayer: O God, who seest that of ourselves we have no strength, keep us both outwardly and inwardly that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
