June 5, 2026
Friday, June 5
The story of Jesus and the demon-possessed boy continues in Mark 9:
25And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
The third habit for walking through the dark is to remember you still haven’t figured it all out yet. In Mark 6, Jesus sent the disciples out, giving them power to cast out demons. They made a tour of Galilee and sent the Devil scurrying away with his tail between his legs. Everywhere they went, demons fled and illnesses were healed. So when this man came with his little boy, the Twelve were confident the power would still be there. But it wasn’t. Imagine their shock and embarrassment. They must have been ashamed to even look this poor father in the face. Then to make matters worse, the scribes showed up, accusing them of being religious con men and heretics. So when they had a moment alone with Jesus later that day, the first thing they had to ask was, “Why did we fail so badly?”
Some think that Jesus’ answer—“This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer”—means that the disciples had grown too self-confident and had stopped relying on God. Maybe. But what it definitely shows is that even those closest to Jesus never fully figured Him out. They had to keep learning, trusting, depending on Him.
During our seminary days in Fort Worth, we had a sudden mouse infestation in our rental house. It felt like the eleventh plague of Exodus. Mice chewed into our cabinets and ate our food. We had to put everything in the fridge to keep the mice from plundering it. One day, the five year old daughter of Carrie’s boss overheard Carrie talking about our problem. She said, “Here’s what you need to do: Get a bunch of snakes and let them loose in your house. The snakes will eat the mice.”
We heard another possible solution from an adult friend. She suggested we find any possible place where mice might be coming in from the outside, even the tiniest crack, and fill it with steel wool, because mice can’t chew through that. Guess which solution we chose? The steel wool worked.
We get frustrated with God because He doesn’t act like we expect Him to. But do you really want a God who takes His orders from us? We have a rather spotty record when it comes to predicting the future, you see. Some of the stuff we pray for makes as much sense as setting snakes loose in your house to get rid of mice. God is the adult in the room. Let’s admit we don’t have it all figured out and trust Him to provide the right answers.
“Lord, the next time life gets chaotic, and I can’t understand why you aren’t doing what I want, please remind me that you are the all-knowing one, and I am wrong more than I’m right. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Conroe
More from Pastor Jeff at his website: jeffbergerwriting.com
