Title Let's become people of faith and prayer
Contents
Ex) Choi Soo-jong's story
body description
A believer is a person who lives by faith. If I am a believer, do I always live by faith and what is the evidence for it? It is a question that is not lacking even if I ask myself again and again.
Let's focus on the content of faith and prayer.
1. Faith is entrusting you to Jesus (verses 19, 20).
He was healed when he brought his son who was possessed by a demon in the text to Jesus.
Example) Accident in front of a mosque/ The scene of his father crying in Bukit Katil in the newspaper last week
But in the process, the child's father says:
"If you can, have pity on us and heal this child," he says.
Why did my father say this?
What does 'I can do it' mean?
My father has experienced so many failures that, of course, he can only say these things.
Even the disciples who had believed in him could not be healed and were rather embarrassed.
Then the Lord speaks.
"What do you mean if it is possible? Nothing is impossible for those who believe."
It is to become a believer.
But how wise this father is, admits his unbelief and says, “Lord, help my unbelief.” He admits his unbelief and asks for help.
Our problem is that we don't even know we don't have faith.
Like the disciples, they are living in an illusion as if they could vaguely do something.
So there is a lot of argument. It's going to be a lot of meetings.
And only assert that the Lord is with you.
without their own responsibility. It is to be complacent with the position, to be complacent with the experience, and to be complacent with the gatherings of people. They mistake this for faith.
2. Prayer is a confession that only God can do (verse 29).
If the Bible asks us to pray, if it means that if we pray, whatever we pray for will come true, it is like pressing a button and it has to be what we want.
If God has no choice but to hear our prayers, then God becomes a machine.
Think of Aladdin's magic lamp from Arabian Nights.
When you rub the lamp, a demon king appears with black smoke and says, "Master, have you called?" and answer.
As long as you rub the lamp, the Demon King must appear whether he likes it or not, and must obey the owner's request once it appears. I have a fear that prayer is thought of as such.
I think of prayer as a panacea.
It is knowing that no matter what kind of problem or disease you have, if you just pray, it will be all right.
But it is not.
Prayer has a much more terrifying meaning.
Explanation of Ezekiel 36:33-38
What is the literal translation of the phrase, "This kind cannot go out except by prayer"?
Do you mean "nothing happens if you don't pray"?
no.
That means "only God can do it."
Rather than saying that nothing happens if you don't pray, I want to emphasize that 'only God does'.
It is not the core of prayer that something happens when you pray, but praying is a confession that no one but God can do this work.
There is one more important word missing from the Korean Bible in the text.
It means "fasting".
The text is referring to "except for prayer and fasting".
If there is this word fasting, the meaning of the text becomes clearer.
Fasting is not eating food.
Man gets all his strength from food.
So, fasting is always used in the Bible to prove how this is impossible with human strength.
If something is accomplished by one person's fast, who will accomplish it?
There is no way that something that could not be done even after eating well can be done by starving.
So, fasting becomes a 'mark' that 'this work was done by some third power, not by the human's own ability'.
Because we have to live as children of God, we must prepare ourselves thoroughly for His Word and His demands.
If you don't have that determination, it's because you're not already in the attitude of faith.
Prayer starts with “Help”.
The more people who pray, the less they have to be proud of.
The more people who pray, the more they realize that God is alive, that He is within us, and that He always provides for our needs.
This is the life of a person who prays.
People who don't pray don't pray anymore because they don't know as much as they don't.
* The importance of purposeful prayer and action prayer
Ex) What happened at the church in Swat
Ex) Let's go to the 6-day pharmacy