It Pays to Persevere

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 little dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’ 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 15:25-28

Under similar circumstances most of us would have given up, but not this woman. First Jesus ignored her; then He said to His disciples, “I’m not even sent to help her.” Still, “she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord help me.” This Gentile mother wouldn’t leave Jesus alone!

Then Jesus told her it wasn’t right to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs. Jesus called her a dog! Most of us would have gone home angry. But look what she told Jesus: “Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’ table.”

You may have thought she responded that way because of her humble attitude, “O Lord, just give me one of the crumbs from Your table!” But she was really saying, “Lord, I don’t need the whole loaf. Give that to the children, although most of them won’t take it. Just give me a crumb. I know what Your bread will do.”

She was not talking about how much humility she had; she was talking about how powerful Jesus’ bread is! She was saying, “Call me anything you want to, but heal my daughter.”

Then Jesus told her, “With faith like that, you can have anything you want.” Jesus had taken this woman to the limits, and she’d passed the test. He knew her faith would turn His power loose.

Great faith always takes God at His Word, and that’s what this Gentile woman did. It paid to hang on and refuse to give up, because she received the answer she’d come for: Her daughter was made whole!

CONFESSION:

I hold fast to God’s Word with tenacity until my healing is manifested. I refuse to give up because I know that God’s Word works!

From: A Devotional for Divine Health Prescription for a Miracle, Mark Brazee, 1999