Affirm
The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
Psalm 121:5
TEXT
Mark 9:14-32 (continued)
So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
“How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy‘s father.
He replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”
Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.” They didn‘t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant. (NLT)
READ
What endless scenes of wonder rise
And strike with rapturous surprise,
When Jesus face to face we see
In all His pomp and majesty!
Angels adore the King of kings
Their faces shadowing with their wings,
And saints the o’erpowering vision prove,
In deepest awe of speechless love!
-A hymn of Charles Wesley
Declare
“Amen!
Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks
and honor and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”
Revelation 7:12