“And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting” - Mark 9:29 (KJV).
In Uganda, at a certain point in her troubled history, the scariest thing in life was to meet a roadblock. Normally, you can’t penetrate from one point to the next, once you meet a roadblock. There are wrought with danger and anything can happen, including loss of life.
Road blocks can also be found in life, where one can’t proceed to the next level. Think of a person desirous for a job promotion. There can exist a roadblock in form of one person who persistently objects to the deserved promotion. Someone might desire to access a certain critical document or secure a certificate to move to another point, but a roadblock stands in the way.
Jesus encountered situations where people had faced roadblocks in life, There was once a man who had a child paralyzed with a crippling and demobilizing spirit (Mark 9:14-29). On seeing its havoc, as it threw the boy into a convulsion, Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” (vv 21). The boy’s father answered: “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (vv 22).
This father had a roadblock standing in his way. It is quite apparent that he had tried all manner of relief, perhaps spent some money elsewhere trying to find a cure. The roadblock stood tall and impenetrable. He certainly pleaded with the disciples who made some attempt, but to no avail. Finally the man got to Jesus. “When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again” (25). At that moment the boy was healed.
Amazed that where they could not Jesus had silenced this spirit, the disciples asked him how. This is when he said that kind only goes away, “by prayer and fasting” (vv 29).
There are some roadblocks that come in our lives hindering us to progress to another level. We may try every effort known to us, yet to no avail. It may be of a spirit that can only be leveled down through “prayer and fasting!”
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, for that roadblock standing in my way, I overcome it now through “prayer and fasting,” just as you healed the crippled boy, this I pray in Jesus’s name!
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
