Daily Devotional

Trust God. He will not instruct you unless He knows you will benefit from that act of obedience. Even if you don’t trust God, just obey; your miracle doesn’t depend on your trust; it depends on your obedience. After the great fish catch, Peter knelt before Jesus, saying: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Do you know how many great and wonderful miracles you have missed just because you followed worldly wisdom?

The key to overcoming the temptation of jealousy and quarrelling is seeking the Holy Spirit through constant prayer. Did you notice that in today’s Gospel passage, immediately after the healing and casting-out-of-demons session, Jesus retreated to a quiet place to pray? This is an important lesson. Jesus did not “need” prayer, yet He never took prayer for granted. If you value prayer, you will always make time for it. Even if it means rising early or staying up all night, you will never let a day pass without spending time in communion with God.

Jesus started with prayer, and throughout His public ministry, He never joked with it. He would rise early in the morning, go to a quiet place to pray (Luke 4:42), and at the end of the day, after dismissing the crowd, he would go again to a lonely place to pray. (Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:46). He would even spend a whole night praying (Luke 6:12). When you are prayerful, a certain aura goes with you; you don’t need to shout or make noise. Your very presence in any space is already a threat to demons. Jesus did not break a sweat dealing with the demon-possessed man. As we often say: “power pass power.”