Being Powerless is Due to Being Prayerless

by | Nov 27, 2016 | Prayer

Mark 9:14-19 – 14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 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.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Jesus informs his disciples in Mark 9:14-19 that the reason they were powerless is because they were prayerless.  This can manifest in a lack of prayer completely or a lack of prayer requesting God to accomplish his will in our life.  So why do we not consistently ask God to do his will in our prayers?

  1. We are naive or ignorant as to God’s design for prayer; that God doesn’t work his revealed will apart from prayer;
  2. We have skewed priorities thinking that our comfort is more important than God’s will. Our prayers tend to be consumed with accomplishing our will instead of conforming our will to Gods will;
  3. We are living in entitlement assuming that because we are such good people God automatically owes us the blessings of his Word;
  4. We are fatalistic, thinking that since God is completely sovereign over every detail of our lives, what’s the point of prayer?  If God has predetermined everything, what does it matter if we pray?  That belief is full of incredible ignorance since God has predetermined to accomplish his predetermined through prayer.
  5. We are completely void of faith and do not as of yet have a relationship with God through Christ.

Doubt can also severely hinder our powerful living, even when we do pray in line with God’s will.  In light of the certainty of God’s truth, why is there oftentimes no confidence in our prayers?

  1. We aren’t praying in line with God’s revealed will (1 John 5:14-15; John 15:7);
  2. We are doubting God’s character or his promises (James 1:6ff);
  3. We aren’t praying with a pure heart and/or motive (Ps. 66:18; Is. 59:2; James 4:3)