Vazquez Counseling

In Matthew 17: 17-21, the Bible records the following:

“Then Jesus answered and said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.’ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’

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.’”

Jesus often spoke in hyperbole to make a point. Here, He’s not saying that we can literally move a mountain if we pray hard enough. He is saying that whatever the situations are in our lives, if we come before God in humble prayer, He will provide solutions to our problems. And Jesus said that prayer and fasting are key components of how we should be asking God. Too many times, we pray, and we don’t really believe our LORD can and will answer our prayer. The thing is that sometimes the answer to our prayer is, “No.” Sometimes, it’s, “Wait.” And many times, if the prayer is within God’s will, the answer will be, “Yes.” And if you’re wondering what God’s perfect will is, it’s told to us in His love letter to us, the Holy Bible. Clearly, from Jesus’ words in this passage, a main component of prayer that is answered by God is belief in Him, that He is able to accomplish everything that He says in His Word. Our LORD does answer prayer; it’s just that we often are unwilling to accept that answer.