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Jesus With Us

by Jerry Ousley  
2/25/2011 / Christian Living

When our son, Jeremy, was around two years old there were times that he had a stubborn streak. Then I was in the Army stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia. We didn't have much money with which to entertain our infant son but one thing that he loved doing, at least most of the time, was going to the park. It was located down the street from the apartment complex in which we lived.

It was a very pleasant evening and so after supper we decided to take him to there. Only, he didn't want to go. We walked across the yard of the apartment complex and at a certain point he just stubbed up and refused to go any further. We couldn't let him do whatever he had a mind to do and Deb recognized that this period that many people have nicknamed "The Terrible Two's" was flooding in on him rapidly. We walked a short distance from him and sat down on a bench, pretending to ignore him but actually watching him with a very close and careful eye. He stood there crying for a while, then he began to throw a tantrum, screaming at the top of his lungs and stomping his feet. We continued pretending to ignore him.

Then we noticed that he was trying to ignore us too. He didn't want us to know that he didn't want us to get out of his sight. He was making sure that we were still there, still with him. Before long he gave in and came running over to us. We proceeded to the park and everything was fine.

The point is that he needed to know that we were with him. How frightening it could have been for a two year old to be in a place where he knew no one and those closest people to him were not around. He needed us to be there.

We spoke about the incident as found in Mark 9:14-29 before but there is another point I'd like to bring out today. We need Jesus with us. The passage of scripture talks about a man who had brought his demon possessed son to be healed. He was looking for Jesus. At the time Jesus was up on the mountain where He had been transfigured before Peter, James and John. The rest of the disciples were at the foot of the mountain taking care of the people when this guy came up looking for our Lord. He wasn't there and so the disciples began doing what they thought they had been trained to do but the demon refused to leave the boy.

Only days before they had returned from a trip where Jesus had sent them out to preach the Gospel heal the sick and spread the good news about Him. They had cast out demons and they were dumb-founded as to why they couldn't do it now.

I've thought about that a lot over the years. The answer is really simple. The fact of the matter was that Jesus wasn't with them. In a sense He had been with them when they were on their mission trip. He had commissioned them to go so in that sense He was with them. But now He was up on the mountain. He hadn't told them to cast out demons, only to wait for Him. They couldn't do it because Jesus wasn't there.

When our Lord returned from the mountain in a nutshell He cast the demon from the boy and there are actually several lessons to be learned in that incident. Afterward the disciples came to Him asking why they weren't able to expel the demon. Jesus' answer was that "this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting."

I've heard others teach that prayer and fasting are the keys to having the miracle working power of the Lord. Of course we need to spend time in prayer and fasting. The reason for that is because it puts us in an attitude of being in the presence of Jesus. These things aren't keys to getting something we want but they are keys to being with Jesus. When Jesus is with us then He has control, He has the power and He can still do great things. We must have Jesus with us. Is He with you? In reality He is even though we may be off somewhere pouting. In fact He's right there waiting for us to acknowledge His presence. Go running to Him today because the world is a terribly frightening place when we don't have Jesus with us.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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