Bible Study Verses
Matthew 17:15-21
"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him." 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." (NKJV)

Thoughts
I've got this bad habit of keeping records. For example, I'm getting ready for crappie fishing during the spring turkey hunt here in Missouri. The timing is perfect: hunt in the morning and fish in the afternoon.

So I go to my "fishing" record book to see when I recorded the last line change, the type of line, and even how many cranks to wind the line on the reel. It just makes changing line so much easier and less mysterious. In minutes, I can choose my rig, change my line, and off I go. So yes, record-keeping is a habit, but maybe not so bad after all!

There's no record of Jesus having prayed immediately before rebuking the demon in the scripture passage above. In fact, there's no record of Jesus even praying while casting out the thing. He just commanded it to go and it came out of the boy right then and there. So what did Jesus mean when He said, "This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting"?
(Don H)

Action Point
Simply this: Jesus was ALREADY prayed up and fully prepared to take on any ungodly situation - in an instant or at any time, from deadly demons to faith-challenged followers. You can't rattle that kind of discipline, as the dark side knows very well.

It's is a great example for believers to be prayed up and prepared, too, as we face our own menacing things of the world.

Sportsmen's Tip of the Day
Many name brand fishing lines have a four digit date code stamped on the supply spool. The 1st digit (or letter) is the month, the 2nd digit is the day, the 3rd digit is the year, and the 4th digit is the shift. For example, a date code of D-05-13-2 signifies April 5, 2013, during the 2nd shift. If the last digit is two numbers, it means an overlap of shifts. At any rate, test your line before heading out on any fishing trip.


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