![]() “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (Matthew 17:19-21) Eventually, we come face to face with a challenge and realize that we need a refreshing from the Lord. What we have and where we are right now, was enough to get us through yesterday, but it is not enough for what we face today. This is just one reason why a daily devotional or bible study time is crucially important. Surely, our minds need to be renewed daily. (Romans 12:2) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) “Brethren, why do you think that the Lord allows his servants to be beaten at all? Well, of course, the chief reason in this case was—and of that we will speak presently,—because God gives the victory to faith, and if we will not believe, neither shall we be established. If we fall, as those disciples probably had fallen, into an unspiritual frame of mind and a low state of grace, our commission will not be worth much, our former qualifications will be of little value, and all successes we have had in earlier days will not take away the effect of present failures. We shall be like Samson, who went out and shook himself as he had done aforetime; but the Spirit of God had departed from him; and the Philistines soon overcame him,—those very Philistines whom, if his Lord had still been with him, he would have smitten hip and thigh with great slaughter. If we are to do the Lord's work, and to do it successfully, we must have faith in him, we must look beyond ourselves, we must look beyond our commission, we must look beyond our personal qualifications, we must look beyond our former successes, we must look for a present anointing by the Holy Spirit, and by faith we must hang upon the living God from day to day. Apart from that, however,—which we will dwell upon directly,—I think our Lord intends that we should often have something fresh come across our path to keep us from getting into ruts.” (Charles Spurgeon) But by prayer and fasting! GiGi❤️
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
August 2024
|