“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”[1]
Here is how
God continued teaching me to put off all the old habits of self-reliance, and
seek every opportunity to join with God’s people in prayer. It began with
another helpful example from our older brother, Peter. [2]
On this occasion, the disciples had just discovered Jesus coming towards their
boat, walking on the water. Peter asked Jesus to command him to walk on the water,
Jesus did so, and Peter began his sensory-overload experience of going to meet
his Master out on top of the rolling waves.
All was well
until we read about Peter, “But when he
saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save
me.’”[3]Of
course, Jesus saved Peter as requested. But the thing that was so clear is
Peter’s change of focus. Remember that the contrast is between rejoicing in the
Lord and being overwhelmed with anxiety. We rejoice as we fix our eyes on Jesus,
and we become anxious as we begin thinking only of ourselves.
Thankfully,
Peter quickly resorted to what would have worked in the first place, he prayed!
What stands
out is that Peter changed his attention from Jesus to himself. It wasn’t that
he was concerned about continuing to walk on the water. That was not the issue
at all. The issue was that he took his eyes off Jesus, and so the only thing he
could see is the wind and the waves through his own eyes. His focus was on himself
and the elements. It was no longer about Jesus with him on the water. It was
all about him and the elements. It was him alone. It was him knowing he was in
over his head (so to speak), and so sinking in his own inability.
It was not
the fact that Peter had inability. It was not that Peter was unable to stand on
the water. He was unable to walk on the water from beginning to end. No one
ever thought Peter had the ability to walk on the water.
The issue is
not inability. This is what God was ministering to me. This is not about
whether I am unable to do things. Of course I am unable to do things! This is
where God will give us freedom! It is not by giving us the ability to do
something, but by changing our focus from self-centered anxiety, to the concern
for others that will be desperately relentless in prayer.
With this
lesson in mind, the next quickly followed. It is taught from the situation the
disciples faced when they could not deliver a young man from his demonic struggle. [4]When
Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, he discovered that a crowd,
and some of the religious leaders, were arguing with his disciples. As soon as
he asked what was going on, a desperate man presented his situation to Jesus.
“Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”[5]
First, the situation
was, “I asked your disciples to cast it
out, and they were not able.”[6]
While the disciples had already been going around Israel driving out demons, they
were unable to cast out the one that was in this boy.
The wording
is so precise. The man brought his boy to the disciples because Jesus was not
available (he was up being transfigured in another purposeful work of God). The
emphasis is that the man asked the disciples. and the disciples tried, but they
were unable. They tried the way they had always tried, and they were unable.
When Jesus became
involved in the situation, he identified what the problem was with the
disciples. Jesus described the whole lot of them as a “faithless generation.”[7]The
father was faithless, the disciples were faithless, the boy was faithless, the
scribes who were arguing with the disciples were faithless, the crowd that had
gathered around them were all faithless. The generation Jesus came to was
faithless.
Jesus solution
then, as it is now, was, “Bring him to
me.”[8]
The church’s message is not, “bring him to us.” It is, “Come, let us bring him
to Jesus.” Yes, we do this together. Yes, we do the bringing. Yes, people bring
people to us. But the over-riding reality, the thing that gives faith, is that
if we bring people to Jesus, Jesus will heal them, deliver them, set them free.
After Jesus delivered
the boy, the disciples had a question for him, “Why could we not cast it out?”[9]This
encourages me because it tells me that, when we don’t know what to do as a
church, Jesus will still work, and we can ask him where we failed.
I can see how
we will face this in our lives where we have already had success in certain
kinds of ministry, and suddenly something blows up in our face and we don’t
know how to handle it. There must be some kind of lesson in this, that the
disciples were continuing to use what they had used in the past experiences,
and could not think of what to do beyond that. This is good.
However, Jesus
gives a pointed reply: “This kind cannot
be driven out by anything but prayer.”[10]What
is so clear, and so woven together with everything else I am learning, is that
there are situations where none of our ministry efforts work because we are
dealing with “this kind” of thing, “this kind” of need, or “this kind” of spirit, or “this kind” of trauma, and the only
thing that will work is prayer.
I have heard
this phrase in different translations, but this wording stands out so strongly.
First, there is a “this kind” of
demon. Second, “this kind” of demon has
a “cannot” associated with it. The
reason we “cannot” is because it is
the kind that “cannot be”.
This
encourages me because Jesus is telling us that some things are inherently impossible.
The reason we cannot do this is because this kind cannot be done.
God wants us
to know this! There are things that cannot be done! There are things we cannot
do because they cannot be done! There is so much freedom in this!!!
How many
things have I faced where I did not pray because I had to do it myself? How
many times have I failed because I could not accept that there was something that
was inherently “cannot be,” hence I
would always fail at my attempts to make it be.
When Jesus says,
“by anything but,” he declares that
we must accept our absolute inability to do this thing by any other means than
the one and only means he presents to us.
The one and
only thing that will drive out this kind of demon is “prayer.” That is it. Not only is that the only means, but it is
the means. The negative is a positive. What cannot be done by anything else can
always be done by prayer. The one thing that drives out this kind of demon is
prayer.
This is what anxious
people need. Along with ministry that aims to deliberately drive out demons, we
must pray for this kind to be driven out. There is no such thing as an impossible
situation, since we are always able to pray, and prayer is the one thing that
demons cannot stand against because it is the way we continue to bring people
to Jesus.
It makes so
much sense why we are not to be anxious about anything. It is because too much
of life is inherently impossible, and it doesn’t get fixed by anxiety. It gets
fixed by prayer. Demonization gets fixed by prayer. Fears are calmed through
prayer. Whatever has us prone to worry cannot be fixed by worry, but it can be
fixed by prayer. Or at least we get fixed when we pray!
So, whether
facing the demonic powers that are against us, or relationship problems that
confront us with weakness and fear, or circumstances that have us over our heads,
treat it like the kind of thing that only comes out, or gets better, or falls
into God’s will, as the church comes together in prayer.
And, if any
of us are already sinking in the waves of doubt, fear, and unbelief, Jesus showed
us the kind of prayer that worked for Peter, “Lord, save me!” Be assured he is listening for your prayer, and is
ready to answer. If you can’t put off your anxiety, bring it to your church’s prayer
meeting. Ask them to pray you out of your anxiety the way God teaches us in
Philippians 4:4-7. And don’t forget to rejoice in the Lord. It is much better
for our souls than anxiety.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Philippians 4:6
[2]
Matthew 14:28-33 (context: Matthew 14:22-27 presents Jesus walking on the
water, and the disciples’ initial reaction, leading into Peter’s request to
walk on the water.)
[3]
Matthew 14:30
[4]
Mark 9:14-29
[5]
Mark 9:17-18
[6]
Mark 9:18
[7]
Mark 9:19
[8]
Matthew 8:27
[9]
Matthew 8:28
[10]
Matthew 8:29
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