The Prayer Lifestyle

Mark 9:28-29 – They asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
Jesus replied, “This kind can only be cast out by prayer (and fasting).”
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The funny thing about this story is that Jesus appears to be stating something completely false. In this story of Jesus casting out the demon, it makes no mention of him either praying or fasting. He speaks to the demon and tells him to get out. It doesn’t specifically say that he ate, so maybe that was the case and it was just left out by the author.
More likely however, is that Jesus was talking about a lifestyle that allowed him to have the power to cast out demons. I shared yesterday about 4 areas of my life where I need to shape up. One of them was my prayer life. It seems to me that prayer and fasting need to be taking place all the time in order to equip us to do the work that God wants us to do. It is not enough to pray and fast on specific occasions for particular things. That isn’t bad, but Jesus required something else here in this passage. He needed the Holy Spirit’s power and that power was born in his lifestyle of prayer and fasting. I need to take that to heart.
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God today I am focusing on praying more. Keep reminding me. Help me to life a prayer lifestyle so that I am prepared when your power is needed. I don’t want to have to change my lifestyle when you want to do something. I want to be constantly available. Help me.