Do you sometimes pray to God as a last resort? Perhaps you suddenly found yourself faced with a challenge and without thinking, the first thing you do is call a close friend or family member for encouragement. You may even begin to grumble to your co-workers at the office, perhaps seek some self-help articles on the internet…or even call into the psychic help-line? (ok, maybe that’s going too far…) But the truth is that we as Christians, quick to proclaim how God is the answer to everything, are just as prone to look everywhere else but to Him for answers.
In the Bible, we read in Mark Chapter 9 how Jesus’ disciples could not cast out an evil spirit that was tormenting a young boy. Although Jesus heals the child, he uses the incident to rebuke both His group of disciples as well as the crowds of people, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?” (Mark 9:19 NIV) At first, His words seem harsh. Won’t we always need Him? Certainly. But at some point, He expects us to grow in our faith and learn from His example as we spend more and more time with Him. When the disciples later ask Jesus what went wrong when they tried to heal the child, Jesus matter-of-factly explains, “This kind [of evil spirit] can be cast out only by prayer.” Could the implication be that the disciples tried everything but prayer?
In looking back on the challenges I’ve faced in my own life, I can only wonder if perhaps my times of struggle could have been shortened had I come to God first, rather than as a last resort. All too often, when facing difficulties, our human nature strives to take over, tempting us to labor in our own strength and then, after all else fails, we cry out to God for help (that is, of course, unless we’ve already decided to blame God for the trouble in the first place).
Thankfully, we’ve been given Jesus Himself as our example. Whenever Jesus faced a challenge or had a difficult decision to make, His first response was to pray, thanking God for what He was about to do, and only then did Jesus proceed to take action.
When faced with a challenge, if, like many of us, you tend to want to act first and pray later… bring your fears and desire for control to God; ask Him to help you to become more intentional about seeking Him first.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 NIV
Shadia Hrichi
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A good reminder. Thanks for sharing.
From your reference in Mark, I’d say how much more the boys father could have prayed as well. But yes, prayer. Being at home with my daughter I get a lot of time to “talk to myself” or “think out loud”, and I realize some times that even though God hears me, I wasn’t directing those conversations to HIM. And I ask Him to help me redirect my words, that I would try to figure things out through His wisdom, not my own. Thank you Shadia!