Prayer and Faith

Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.” [Mark 9.28-29]

In contrast, Matthew records this event with different wording:

Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” [Matthew 17.19-20]

So, we have to decipher which of these versions is accurate, right? Absolutely. However, if we believe the Bible in inerrant, this presents a problem, right? Well, hang on...

What if both are accurate? By that, I mean, we should understand that the reason God gave us more than one account of the life of Jesus (Gospel), was so we could have full understanding of the events of His life.

That said, I believe it is right to conclude that the "prayer" mentioned by Mark is one and the same as the "faith" mentioned by Matthew.

Question: What IS prayer if it is not faith?

And where better to express faith than IN prayer?

The point is, faith and prayer cannot be separated. There is no reason they should be separated. I will go so far as to say that faith, without prayer is dead. James wrote it like this:

Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. [James 2.26]

Prayer is the very foundation of good works. 

Jesus' life was, and is, our example. Most people want to fast forward to Jesus' miracles, but few slow down to understand the Gospels' record that Jesus was a man of MUCH prayer. In fact, we have one record of Jesus praying all night. Consequently, Jesus performed some pretty amazing miracles.

We simply cannot rush to miracles unless we have first slowed down in prayer.

A visible miracle is simply the "tip of the iceberg" of a massive amount of unseen prayer.

Father, help me to slow down in my quest to see Your power and first spend the quality time in prayer that Your Word makes clear is necessary.