Even Christ Had to Pray More Than Once

In Mark 8 we read the following: “22 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23  And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. 24  And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. 25  After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.”

That puzzled me when I read it for the first time. After all, Christ is God. Could He not have done this in one attempt?

I later learned that though He was God veiled in flesh, He chose not to use His prerogatives of deity but chose to be like us while remaining God veiled in flesh (Philippians 2:5-11). Thus, He had some of the restrictions we do.

While the above passage does not state precisely why Christ had to pray twice, we can surmise something by looking at His initial act of bringing the man out of the city. Based on a previous situation recorded in Mark 6:5-6, there might have been a lack of faith in that area. The need to pray twice does not mean there was a deficiency in Christ. It was more likely a a case of spiritual warfare where the lack of faith of the city had affected the man or / and created a negative spiritual climate for the miraculous to occur. For a positive example of group faith, please read my article, “Investigating The Miraculous: God Miraculously Heals Son Accidently Ran Over by His Dad.” It contains a link to a re-enactment of the accident.

Christ very well knew that we would be serving Him in a sin ladened world that had little faith. The point of the passage in Mark is to show us we need to remove the spiritual needy from the realm of disbelief, pray, and keep praying. This harmonizes with the literal rendering of Matthew 7:7 (Williams), “Keep on asking, and the gift will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and the door will open to you.”

So, be faithful in prayer, keeping in mind we must receive in meekness however and whenever He answers.

Note: 

God willing this shall be part of my Bible GemLight series as turquoise011.