Having Technical issues sorry! This is without edits but I wanted to get it out to you!

Read: Sirach 1:1-10

There is One who is wise, the Creator of all, the King greatly to be feared sitting upon his throne, and ruling as God. How consoling this is! It means there is Someone over all who knows all things. He apportions out his wisdom and gives his gifts to each as seen fit. That means that I don’t have to worry about overseeing everything because Someone else is in control. And it also means that we can ask for whatever we want and need and trust that He will give. He desires to give us wisdom. How can He not? She dwells with all flesh according to his gift, and he supplied her to those who love him. What does this mean? It means that He is just in all his ways and they are all trustworthy. It means He will give to His children. What if I am far from that? The first stage of wisdom is to fear the LORD. You are on your way. See that He will reach out to you. He knows the deepest desire of your heart and its movement. He knows that you want Him and are seeking Him. He is blessing you as you dig deeper into the Love of a Father’s Heart.

If your experience of your own father has not been that, don’t be afraid because this Father knows no limits to His generosity. He is above all and sees all. He knows precisely what you are going through and wants to pour out to your heart many gifts as you find Him. He just wants you to tell Him and journey with Him. Why wouldn’t He be generous? He made you and created you not for vengeance but because He loves you. He does not look down on you from some mighty throne for the least little discrepancy and damn you. No! He wants to help you to Himself. Don’t get me wrong. He is mighty, but He is merciful and just. He is not overbearing. All that He wants is you to show Him is that you are trying. He walks right with you and helps you up, gives you strength, and then asks for you to step in faith. When you fall, He picks you up asking “What did you learn? You did_____ much better this time! Keep trying!” One thing you have to understand. He is WITH YOU. His presence isn’t just off in heaven somewhere but in the throne of your heart.

Read: Mark 9:14-29

We can learn many things from this passage. I want to take you from a different angle and show you a new side of this scripture. The story starts with a great tumult and argument right after Peter, James, and John and Jesus descend from the mountain of Transfiguration. (As a sidenote, it often happens this way after a great mountaintop experience…great tumult.) Jesus brings the crowd into dialogue when he comes to the disciples. What were you discussing with them? We have one character step forward and say, “Teacher, I brought my son to you for he has a mute spirit…I asked your disciples to cast it out and they were not able.” Jesus’ response at first may sound like a rebuff; Oh faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? But to whom is he referring? We find that it is not the boy. We find that the one character is the father of this child. It is as if God is testing this father and continues the dialogue seemingly from a distance, How long has he had this? We can hear the desperation in the father’s voice as he describes from childhood and how the spirit throws him into convulsions and into fire and water to destroy the child and how he foams at the mouth. The father comes to a pleading climax, “but if you can do anything have pity on us and help us.”

I love Jesus’ response, “If you can! (notice the exclamation point) All things are possible to him who believes. There is almost a daring in His response. How far will this father go for his child? We see right away what this father is made of he cries out immediately, “I believe, help my unbelief!” Please just do something. I know you can do it. If there is any part of my lack of faith help it. I love my son!

Now it is time to dig deep and look beyond the mere story for it really does show the heart of the Father. Who is this child but a symbol of the culture? The crowd. It is as though this great tumult and argumentation and doubt is the very essence of what the child is embodying. It is exactly where we are today. Can God really do something? Look at the great convulsions and deaths to pleasure through all fire and high water. It is coming now to a very feverish pitch. The culture is getting darker and darker, dying in its sin as we see the child. Yet what happens in this story? Jesus saw that a crowd came running together and he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “…I command you come out of him and never enter him again.” Jesus is very firm and with great authority casts it out. Yet why? And how?

The disciples couldn’t even do it after years of training with the Master. They had authority. Yet it is through the begging of the father and because his love of his son that freedom is found. Isn’t it the same with our heavenly Father? The father cries out through the voice of Jesus, “Come out!” and it does. The spirit of leaves the child as though a corpse. Are we not dead in our own sins? But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. God can even take us out of the worst of worst and make us living. (Look at His love and how he has handled you. You are still here. You are still breathing.) We see the level of the evilness of the demons at its worse and it is precisely only the Father’s love that can bring us out. The disciples are astounded and troubled and say as they enter the house, “Why could we not cast it out?” Like we might be saying, “Why can’t I get anywhere? Where is my freedom? I am completely dead in my state. What can I do?” Or maybe it isn’t even us but a friend who is in the worst of sin. We question and we quander. What does Jesus respond? “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” And so I say to you, are you at your worst or even just stuck? Fast and pray. Really. Only by this can we have any hope of calling out to the Father.

Am I saying that you have to be like the great hermits who ate nothing but berries and roots and nuts? No. We don’t do the extremes unless called by God to do this. But I am saying that you are called to sacrifice by fasting and prayer. I recommend setting aside two days of the week where you follow the prescribed rules for fasting. Two lighter meals that do not equal one full meal and one full meal. Perhaps you are even at a place of doing just a couple of shakes in place of meals. Wednesdays and Fridays are two days the Church has long asked for traditionally but it doesn’t have to be these days. Don’t worry if you have a real physical reason why you can’t fast (diabetic and blood sugars for example). You can still fast and do without something else most liked on these specific days. It is not so much what and when but how it is done. The heart is the essential piece. You might be called to more rigorous fasting at certain time periods and less at others. Pray to see what level the Lord is calling you too but do something. It is here and only here that a great spiritual rebirth can happen. What if you are saying to me, “But I am nothing is happening.” There is a season for everything do not lose hope. God will call you out your great suffering. Persevere in prayer and fasting. Do not be discouraged and show Him your love. Show Him your heart. God the Father cannot resist an open and loving heart of faith. You will find peace and joy. You will find the regeneration you are longing for.