Mark 9 Devotions by Stephen Taylor

Mark 9:28,29

After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."

It can be easy to forget or take for granted just how powerful prayer is, but then verses like these remind us just how special it is. The power doesn't lie within the one who speaks the prayer but rather in the One they are praying to! That's important for many different reasons, but let us each be encouraged by the reason I'm about to share.

Think about it like this: if the power of the prayer lies with the individual and not the Lord, then each individual would have different levels of power and pull. But since it all lies with the Lord, each one of us has access to the same power, and that is of Christ! That means that if you are serving Christ wholeheartedly, and so is your pastor, then both of your prayers reach the Lord's ears the same way and at the same time! There is no hierarchy in prayer but a level playing field for all. We are either all His, and our prayers are a fragrant offering of incense, a pleasing aroma before our God, or we are divided in heart, and our prayers go up like a stench before Him.

When we pray, God looks at the heart; is it coming from a heart of devotion to Him or division? Are we claiming to be His but walking hand in hand with the world? We can say the sweetest words with the blackest heart, and they wouldn't be worth the breath it took to speak them. Make no mistake, God hears the desperate cry and plea from a humbled and broken sinner's heart, but after we give Him that heart, we must honor Him with it!

James 5:14-18- Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

God bless! I love you all, but His love is never-ending! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!

 

Mark 9:42

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.”

Jesus’ words paint a powerful picture and pose a question that we all should ask ourselves from time to time: am I a stumbling block or a building block? Does what I say, what I do, and how I act cause people to stumble in their walk with Christ? Or does it help build them up in the faith?

It’s easy for us to say it’s not my problem how someone responds or reacts to what I do, and in a way that is true. We are all accountable for our own actions, and what people do is on them. But are we setting them up to fail? Are we dressing in a way that causes people to sin? Are we sharing things that cause discord among the body? Are we calling good evil and evil good? Making excuses for people’s sins instead of lovingly helping them to overcome them?

Jesus says it would be better for us to be thrown into the sea than to commit this sin. He is saying that death is a better fate than to walk into this trap. That’s how serious this is to Him, and if it’s that serious to Him, then we better honor it with all that we have. What can we do today to promote unity not division in the Body of Christ?

Romans 16:17-19- I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

God bless! I love you all, but His love is never-ending and unchanging! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!

 

Mark 9:47-49

And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “’the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Everyone will be salted with fire.”

These verses are a sobering reminder that everyone will face the fire one day; the question is what kind? For we will either face the refiner's fire and become more and more like Christ, or we will reject that offer and face the fires of wrath and judgment. That is one of the things Jesus is teaching us here. That it is better to lose part of you now (refinement) than to stay the same and lose all of you in Hell.

We see Christ equate refinement with losing a part of the body. To lose an eye like He references here would be hard, painful, and extremely uncomfortable, but what does it bring in the end? Life! Whereas taking the easy way out and refusing to let the Lord do His work in you brings death, both now and forever. Christ is so adamant about this truth that He references it in three different ways (see Mark 9). He says it doesn’t matter if it’s a hand, a foot, or an eye; it must go if it’s keeping you from Him and being more like Him.

Think about how strong of language Christ uses here; He is serious about this; are we? The hand can represent our actions, the feet our path, and the eye our desires. So is there anything in our lives needing to be lopped off or plucked out in order that we may continue to grow in Christ? Remember, the price of refusal and rebellion is much more than we want to pay!

One last thing: Christ doesn’t tell us to pluck our neighbor's eye out, nor does He say to have your pastor or your wife do it for you, but He calls us to personally do it ourselves. He is calling us to take personal responsibility for the sins in our lives and give them over to Him! Will we? Holy Spirit, help us, please!

Romans 8:26- And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

God bless! I love you all, but His love can save you from the final fire! Glory, honor, and praise now and forever to Papa God, Jesus Christ our King, and the Holy Spirit!