When confronted with an issue, pray first.

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After arriving back home, his disciples cornered Jesus and asked, "Why couldn't we throw the demon out?" He answered, "There is no way to get rid of this kind of demon except by prayer." (Mark 9:28-29 — The Message)

How many times, when faced with a problem, difficulty or an out-and-out crisis, do we wear ourselves out trying to “fix” something on our own, usually with little success, before we turn to prayer? Of course, prayer should be our first action. The truth of the matter is, as Jesus points out, there are things, and I believe many things, which can only be handled with and through pray. It is our greatest weapon and tool in our battle for our hearts and the hearts of others. So often we wait too long to use it or in some cases fail to use it at all.

It we truly want victory in our lives, if we truly want to see God move in and though the lives of others, we must start and end with pray. Yes, Jesus did a lot of physical things in helping others in His time on earth, but all of His work was prefaced with prayer and time spent with the Father. If Jesus needed to pray to have the power over demons such as this one, if He needed to pray and spend time with the Father in order to have the power to do all that He did, then certainly we need to do the same.

So the next time you are confronted with an issue, problem or work of an evil spirit, rather than do what you usually have done in the past start with prayer and time with the Father, go to the source and hear from Him and get the power of heaven behind you. And pray, pray, pray.

Live intentionally, purposely, free and with passion,

Pete Reinbold