"The Poor Wise Man" - 2

 "Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man." (Ecclesiastes 9:15 KJV)

  ""Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't heal him." Jesus said, "You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment on the boy was well. Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we cast out that demon?" "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there.' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."" (Matthew 17:15-20 NLT)

 Yes, I know, there seems to be something missing in the NLT regarding this passage in Matthew; verse 21 is not there, there is a skip from verse 20 to verse 22; verse 21 has Jesus saying: "But this kind of demon won't leave except by prayer and fasting." There might be something to that, what I do not know; but the whole point to this message it about believing in and trusting God's power; the mustard seed of faith, is made powerful by the faith we have in God! 

 So, with that, I have given some thought to this point about the poor wise man not being remembered for being able, by his wisdom, to deliver the city: If he was wise enough to trust in God, then he would have prayed for God to deliver the city; and with his faith in God, the city was delivered! If this was the case, the poor wise man, most likely went into his prayer closet and by himself, prayed earnestly and with the faith of a mustard seed, he prayed that God would intervene. 

 That is just a thought, so don't hold me guilty of spiritualizing the text, if it might seem as though I am digging for things that do not exist. However, I know full well, by my own prayers for people to be delivered or for marriages to be held intact, that they have no clue who has prayed for them; and I have no desire to try and tell them that I did. This is something, that even if it was because of prayer, I don't want any credit; but it just pleases me to see things happen, thanking the Lord for what He has done.  

 Sometimes there needs to be more effort put into prayer, than just saying a prayer; sometimes we need to get serious and bold, making prayer passionate and faithfully crying out, expecting there will be some kind of deliverance or restoration. The very least, that whatever happens, God's will be done! Knowing that our Heavenly Father knows best, for all situations.

 That reminds me of that joke, the one about the man who fell over the cliff, grabbing onto a root before he was falling to his doom. He cried out for help, yelling out, "Help! Is anybody up there?" And a voice answered, "I am Here." And the man replied back, "Can you help me?" And the voice said, "Yes, I can help you." Then then man asked, "Will you help me?" And the voice said, "Yes, I will help you?" And then the man desperately asked the voice, "What do you want me to do?" And the voice replied, "Let go of the root!" The man yelled out again, "Is anybody else up there!" 

 We have no way of knowing how God will deliver us from anything; but we can trust Him as the loving Father that He is, whatever happens, as long as we surrender to His will, it will be glorious and will make everything work towards the good and for His purpose. After all, His will matters most...

""Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be open. You parents - if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him."" (Matthew 7:7-11 NLT)