Written by: John Sernaque
Call to Worship
Matthew 17:20
17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Their faith must be strengthened by fervent prayer and fasting, and humiliation of heart. They must be emptied of self, and be filled with the Spirit and power of God. Earnest, persevering supplication to God in faith—faith that leads to entire dependence upon God, and unreserved consecration to His work—can alone avail to bring men the Holy Spirit’s aid in the battle against principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and wicked spirits in high places. {DA 431.2}
In this account, Jesus is speaking to the disciples after they tried to cast out the devil from a boy and could not. The disciples asked, why could not we cast him out? Because of their unbelief, their lack of faith. Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. If we try to live our lives by our own strength and own reasoning, we will fail, it’s as simple as that. We are no match for Satan. It is when we empty ourselves, when we surrender all, is when we can do all things through Christ Jesus which strengthens us. Today is the day when we must clean all the garbage away from the door to our hearts so that God can fill us with His spirit and power. It is the day to Let Go, and Let God.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
We come before You in thanksgiving, praise, and prayer. We thank You for this privilege and honor to be able to come to the foot of Your throne, to draw nigh unto You that You may draw nigh unto us. It is our prayer that as we empty ourselves and surrender all to You this day, that You may fill us with Your Spirit and Power. Increase our faith by Your Spirit, here we are, here are we, use us we pray and do not pass us by. We pray our faith be strengthened by fervent prayer and fasting, and humiliation of heart. Help us to always pray in faith, nothing wavering for if we waver, we are like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Help us and strengthen us to move mountains, that all obstacles are removed from our path on our way to complete the work of salvation You would have us do. But though we have all faith, we pray for charity, as even if we can move mountains, without charity we are nothing. Charity is kind and never fails. For faith, hope, and charity all abide, but the greatest of these is charity. We pray for none forget not to entertain strangers, for some have entertained angels unawares. Help us to not want and be content for the things we have. We pray that You bless us, Your people, and that we may hear and understand Your word that we may live our lives according to Your Word. For Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. We are sorry and humbly repent of our sins and pray You forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We claim Your promise that whatsoever we shall ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive. We thank You for hearing and answering our prayers, in the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
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