GOD REWARDS THE DETERMINED SOUL (PART 4)
TEXT:
" For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: … and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. (Mark 7 verses 25 to 28, King James Version)
I have discovered that in God's dealing with humanity, He watches out for responses from men that go beyond what is usual, regular, or customary. I have repeatedly said that extraordinary measures from us towards God have the tendency to touch His tender feelings to do us good. Where He finds words or acts of men that go beyond the ordinary, He commends such with avowed approbation. In Matthew chapter 8 for instance, the Lord commended the faith of the Centurion who had told Him not to bother coming to his house to heal his servant, but rather asked that He spoke the word only. In response, the Lord Jesus said "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” (Matthew 8 verse 10).
The story of the Syrophenician woman which is the subject matter of our discussion this morning shows again that God rewards desperation or determination. She had come to Jesus saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil." The Bible says in the very following verse that "he answered her not a word." (Matthew 8 verses 22 and 23). Obviously, that Jesus "answered her not a word" couldn't be more disappointing. At that moment, many will get discouraged and cease from making further entreaties to the Lord. Are you discouraged because you feel the Lord hasn't answered you? But it wasn't so with the Syrophenician woman.
Following the intervention of Jesus' disciples, "saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.", the Lord Jesus in addition to revealing further reasons for not attending to her, aspersed and vilified her character, called her a dog; saying "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." (Matthew 15 verse 26). Amazingly still, she refused to be deterred by the Lord's aspersions. This was indeed a great woman of faith because she was desperate and determined to get her young daughter delivered and healed by Jesus. With that as her goal, she replied, "and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." Again, how desperate and determined are you with your requests to God?
In my little walk with God, I've discovered that the Lord likes to see men ask great things from Him. From the aspersions of the Lord Jesus against this woman, it's obvious that her's was a request that she had no right to ask because according to the Lord, the bread was for children. But the Lord likes to see men asking Him in this way. He not only granted the request and healed her daughter, but He praised her for her great faith saying "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt." (Matthew 15 verse 28).
One lesson to learn from the encounter of the Syrophenician woman with the Lord is simply that we should not give up or become discouraged because we haven't received answers from the Lord. Another lesson is that with Jesus, we have become accepted in the beloved, and not strangers anymore. With this confidence, let's proceed to ask whatever we will from God, even things that we couldn't have been entitled to, but for Jesus. Let's not forget that in Christ Jesus, we are completely out of the old and to the praise of the glory of His grace, we are now on a new threshold of life! The Lord has assured us saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." (John 16 verse 23). Praise the Lord!
PRAYER:
Thank You Father for accepting me in the Beloved. In Christ Jesus, I'm no longer a castaway but a possessor of the inheritance of the saints in Light. Help me to not give up on You, for whatever reason, in Jesus name.