Great Faith
“The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’
’Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that moment.”
Today’s Text: Matthew 15:21-28 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
I have faith that Jesus is alive and that He is alive in me! And I believe that Jesus has the power to heal and the power to exorcise demons. So why is it that my prayers for healing and exorcism are not always answered? What was it about the woman’s faith that Jesus should say, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted”?
It’s not wise to try and pinpoint cause and effect when it comes to Jesus answering our prayers. Of course, Jesus always answers our prayers with “yes,” “no,” or “not now.” But I am thinking about the prayers Jesus answers “yes” to. And we know that Jesus will answer “yes” only according to the sovereign will of God.
Even so, in this woman and in almost all the people who came to Jesus for healing we find desperation, as well as humility born of their desperation. Jesus was their only hope.
During this Lenten season, will I be truly desperate enough to be humiliated before others, if only Jesus would grant my request? Am I willing to “wear sackcloth” and “heap ashes on my head” to demonstrate my desperation?
For almost all the people who came to Jesus with requests, their desperation was born of a deep love. They might have even been willing to trade places with the afflicted. Am I willing to trade places with the afflicted if only they would be healed?
Do I love those whom I pray for, such that Jesus would answer my prayers with “You have great faith! Your request is granted”?
Of course, Jesus has granted my requests in the past—sometimes my requests for others, but most of the time (I think) for my personal requests. Maybe that is because in my personal desperation, I am will to genuinely humble myself before God to a degree that I do not quite reach when I am praying for others. I don’t know.
Again, it is not wise to try and ascertain cause and effect when it comes to Jesus answering our prayers. But my desire is that the Holy Spirit would draw me into such great love toward those for whom I pray.
Father, Your ways are high above our ways. “I am not skilled to understand / What God has willed what God has planned / I only know at His right hand / Stands one who is my Savior.” And so I pray to You, for where else can I turn? I pray to You, trusting that You answer every single prayer. I pray to You, trusting that You will work for my good, because I love You, as faulty as that love is. But grow my love for You and grow my love for others, as that is Your good and perfect will. In Jesus’s name.
