[14] And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,[15] “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.[16] “So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”[17] Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”[18] And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.[19] Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”[20] So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.[21] “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:14-21
A couple of days ago my wife asked me, “Is that knee getting any better?” It was a rhetorical question. I was hobbling around pretty badly. The knee obviously wasn’t getting any better. And that’s what I told her. It felt terrible to voice it. My knee had improved considerably since the surgery; but it hadn’t gotten as good as I hoped. It was tough to admit that I had reached my maximum medical cure. I had gotten everything out of the surgery I was going to get. I had reached the end of the natural. It was a depressing place to be. I said a brief and not very heart felt prayer, “It’s up to you.” I said glancing up to heaven but really not expecting much.
Yesterday morning the knee was better. By nightfall, it was quite a bit better. I am reminded of the Daily Bread verse for today, “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength”. —Isaiah 40:29 The end of us is not a bad place. In fact, it is where He wants us to operate, to be. I can’t help but think how much misery I would avoid if I wouldn’t keep drifting back to the point where I begin to think I’m doing something on my own.
Consider the disciples. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record how Jesus sent them out and miracles happened. And it wasn’t long before they thought it was all about them. That they were the ones who were healing and casting out demons. So they asked Jesus, “Why could we not cast it out?” His response was that it was a question of faith, and prayer and fasting. Faith is trusting in Him and not in us. Prayer is spending time with Him and becoming more like Him and fasting is coming to the end of the natural so we can operate in the spiritual. We lose our focus on us, our hunger and our needs, so that we can focus on Him.
It’s at the end of us where miracles happen. We are called into Spiritual Warfare. We should be seeing the blind see and the lame walk and demons flee. But that will only happen at the end of us, at that place where we know it’s all about Him. Jesus is saying that nothing is impossible for us when we come to the place where it’s not about us.
Nick
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