Faithful Persistence

In Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus has an encounter with a Canaanite woman, who's daughter is demon possessed. As this woman was crying out to Jesus, over and over again she is addressing him as "Lord" knowing that he is the only one who can help her.

Now the strange thing about this story is that she calls out to Jesus four times, but after the first three pleas for help, Jesus doesn't respond like we would think. After her first cry to him, he just ignores her and then after the second, he tells her, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." And then, after she falls to her knees in total desperation and asks for help a third time, he tells her, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

Wow! Really Jesus? Where is the love? Where is the compassion?

Sometimes this is how we feel when we approach the throne of God in prayer and we don't get what we want. There are times when we are just begging and crying out to God over and over and it seems like we are just being ignored by God or that he has some more important people to help. But perhaps, this is just a test to see how faithful we will be.

Finally, this woman tells Jesus, "Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." And it is in this moment that Jesus gets what he wanted out of this woman; a persistent faith. Jesus says, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted."
If this woman would of quit praying, her daughter never would have been healed. How many times have you quit praying to God?

A lot of times when we don't get what we want from God we give up and stop praying. But we have to remember that when we pray, it's not just about what we want, but what God wants. And what God wants is for us to have a faithful, persistent prayer life. That means, God never wants us to stop talking to him, asking him for things, and being faithfully persistent in doing so.

May we have a faithful persistence in our prayers to God,

BW