When It Comes

July 8

“Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.'

But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, 'Send her away, for she cries out after us.'

But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’

Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, help me!'

But He answered and said, 'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.'

And she said, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.'


Then Jesus answered and said to her, 'O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.'

And her daughter was healed from that very hour,” Matthew 15:21-28.

Persistent faith…what an amazing exchange occurred between this Canaanite woman and the Lord! The woman loved her daughter and anguished at the thought of her demon possession. Jesus loved the woman but made a show of seeming indifference to the plight of this foreign woman.

Rather than being offended in His ‘prejudicial’ response to her plea for His help she not only persisted to beseech Him in the matter but she WORSHIPED HIM! When Jesus rebuffed her, she did not turn away in a huff. She did not discredit Him by asserting that if He were who He claimed to be, He would have compassion on her child. Rather, she worshiped Him!

How many of us express such confidence in the One who has promised? How many of us, when our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling are willing to persist in bombarding Heaven with our requests? How many of us are able to see beyond God’s silence to His perceive His promise? How many of us have this kind of “mustard seed” faith (see Matthew 17:20, Luke 17:6).

How many of us would continue to worship a God who seemed to express His disdain for us? Would we be emotionally injured by the seeming rebuff and sulk off? Would we dismiss the notion of a God who hears and answers prayer because our experience had appeared to be negative?

If we did, we would in so doing, rob ourselves of the blessing of seeing the desires of our heart fulfilled. In His parable about the unjust judge (see Luke 18:1-8) Jesus made it quite clear that persistence brings reward.

He said that if the judge who cared nothing about the widow in her plight would capitulate to her request because of her persistence, how much more should the children of God anticipate that He will respond to their unrelenting prayers.

Let us take heart as we read the Word of God that assures us that although His response may not come in our time, we may trust that it will indeed come in the Lord’s time—and that it will come in His way.

And when it comes, the answer to our prayers will not appear to be mere crumbs from the master’s table but will be the fullness of the solution to our profoundest need.