Day 4 of Fast

Waiting Through Prayer

I don’t know about you, but I’m one of the most impatient people I know.

I. Hate. Waiting.

In a world of instant gratification—where everything has to be immediately now—I come back to the reminder from Jesus who told His disciples that, sometimes, a specific need can only be tackled through prayer and fasting. 

That implies time. 

“So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.’” (Matthew 17:20-21, nkjv)

My favorite part of those verses is the implication that what we pray for can take as little faith as the size of a mustard seed. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Even in our most discouraged moments, who can’t find that one-millimeter-in-diameter sized faith? When I was single and waiting way too long—in my not-so-humble opinion—for God to write my love story, I used to argue that verse back to God. Didn’t I at least have that amount of faith? 

The harder part of those verses is the idea that some needs take even more prayer and fasting. They may take more than a quick, popcorn style of a prayer tossed up at God. He desires relationship; He desires time with us. Sometimes our prayer life also needs to include the discipline of fasting. 

This conversation with Jesus came up during a time the disciples were unable to drive out a demon from a suffering person. They were asking Jesus why their prayers didn’t work. From Jesus’ answer, it sounds like it wasn’t that those prayers would never work. It would just take more time and effort. 

The good thing is, even in our times of waiting, we can pray. 

Praying is active. 

Praying is doing. 

We are not being lazy or stagnant when we devote time to pray. As Jesus says, prayer moves mountains. 

Written by Cheryl Price