Daily Reading "If You Have Faith" (Matthew 17:20 NIV)

So there finally here, my daily readings, and as always, right on point with a message I can relate to, hope you can get something from it as well. Here's how it read today...

Thurs Dec. 4

"IF YOU HAVE FAITH." MATTHEW 17:20 NIV

The view from the mountain (2)

When Christ's disciples came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, they were faced with an epileptic boy who kept falling into fire and water. His heartbroken father told Christ, "I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him" (v. 16 NIV). Immediately, "Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him" (Mt 17:18) Notice:

(1) Mountain-top experiences are to equip us for our next encounter with the enemy. If you don't understand that, you won't be prepared for the challenges ahead. (2) We're called to minister to people who keep falling into situations that hurt them. And it's going to take more than personality and religious platitudes to set them free. Christ's disciples were powerless because they were prayerless. Jesus said: "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Mt 17:21). If we keep doing the "same old same old," we'll keep getting the same old results. Persistent, prevailing prayer is the price we must pay for walking in God's power. (3) We must rise above the attitudes around us. Jesus confronted the core problem: "O faithless...generation" (Mt 17:17). We're fighting the faithlessness of a generation molded by secular media and godless values. If we let it, it will pull us down and wear us out. But we can prevail. That day Jesus said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move'...and it will move" (Mt 17:20 NIV). Observe two things: (a) If you have faith." Everybody around you doesn't have to have faith in order for you to see results. (b) You don't have to be a spiritual giant. Just use your tiny, mustard-seed-size faith and God will move the mountain.