Proactive prayer

In Mark 9:14-29, Jesus had just come down from the Transfiguration with Peter, James and John, and encountered a scene – his other disciples had tried to cast a demon out, and couldn’t. Jesus took care of it himself. At the end of the reading we’re told:

Mark 9:28-29 (NKJV) And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

The thing is, Jesus didn’t pray for an hour before he cast the demon out, and he didn’t fast for three days first, either. But other readings in the gospels indicate that Jesus had a full prayer life – he had done his praying well before the crisis hit.

It’s much easier to believe when our prayer life is proactive, before we have an incident that requires Divine intervention. That way, when it comes, we’re more confident and less worried.

Doug