What a first-century mother can teach us - Greg Laurie - http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/what-a-first-century-mother-can-teach-us/?cat_orig=faith
Pastor Greg Laurie cites tenaciousness of woman with demon-possessed daughter
It has been said that God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers. While that statement isn't theologically correct, it does make a point about the importance and influence of mothers.
George Washington said that his mother was the greatest teacher he ever had. Abraham Lincoln said, "All that I am or hoped to be I owe to my angel mother." And I especially like Theodore Roosevelt's statement about mothers: "When all is said and done it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen even than the soldier who fights for his country. ... The mother is the one supreme asset of national life; she is more important by far than the successful statesman or businessman or artist or scientist." Then we have this statement from Ronald Reagan: "From my mother, I learned the value of prayer, how to have dreams, and believe I could make them come true."
In the gospel of Matthew we find the story of a persistent mother, a mother who had a daughter in a desperate situation. In her life we see an example of the importance of persistence in prayer - not only for mothers, but for anyone who wants to see God answer their prayers in the affirmative.
We are told in Matthew 15 that she was "a woman of Canaan" from the region of Tyre and Sidon. In other words, she was a Gentile. Mark's gospel adds that she was a Syrophoenician woman. Because of this, she probably would have been a worshiper of false pagan deities such as Astarte, the goddess of fertility, and would have been raised to believe in many gods. Perhaps in her own lifestyle she somehow invited satanic influence that seemed to have filtered through to her daughter - so much so that her daughter became possessed by a demon. In this mother's own words, her daughter was "severely demon-possessed."
Whatever it was, there was something about this mother's lifestyle that invited devilish influence, and she didn't know what to do. Her false gods couldn't save her, and her religion couldn't get her out of the mess that she had gotten herself into.
She started hearing about this mysterious rabbi from Nazareth who was known as Jesus. She heard about his miracles. She heard about his teachings. She may have reasoned, If I can somehow get to Jesus with my daughter, he could touch her, and she could be delivered from this evil influence. So she found him and cried out, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed" (Matthew 15:22 NKJV).
But here's how he responded: "He answered her not a word" (verse 23).
Without an understanding of the culture at that time, it might appear after an initial reading of the text in Matthew that Jesus was unconcerned with this mother's cry and the plight of her daughter. It could almost seem as though Jesus were rejecting her. But Jesus responded to this mother in such a way because he wanted to develop her faith, not destroy it. Jesus wasn't playing games with her, nor was he trying to make her already difficult situation even worse. He was trying to draw out her faith, which caused her to rise to the challenge and stand as an example of someone who knew how to be persistent in her pleas.
The disciples saw Jesus' lack of response and thought they should send her away. In fact, she apparently was creating quite a scene. So what was the point of all of this? Jesus, being God, knew everything about her, and he could see in this woman a tenacious, persistent faith that would rise to the occasion. He wasn't putting up barriers to keep her away but to draw her closer. He knew she would rally. He knew that she would press on. That is why he did this. He was teaching his disciples, who were often lacking in faith, a lesson. And he was giving us a model of how to pray effectively.
Matthew tells us that she kept pressing on: "Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, help me!'" (verse 25)
Jesus told her, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs" (verse 26).
So she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table" (verse 27). I think she could see a gleam in his eye. It looked as though he was turning her away, but really he wasn't at all.
The word that Jesus used for "dogs" here could be translated from the original language as "little puppies." It was hardly a compliment, but it wasn't as harsh as it may seem in some translations. There was a tenderness and affection there.
After putting up a barrier of silence and then another barrier of apparent rejection, Jesus heard what he wanted to hear and then made an alarming statement: "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire."
The mouths of the disciples must have dropped to the ground at that point. You can imagine what they were thinking: What? A moment ago he wasn't even acknowledging this woman's presence!
So what brought this about? Jesus said this to her because of her persistence, tenacity and commitment. When the door was shut in her face, she only knocked on it. When Jesus mentioned dogs, she only picked up what he said like a dog would pick up a stick, and she dropped it at his feet. She had such faith that she simply would not go home until her problem was resolved.
Many times we give up so easily. We pray about something once, and if it is not answered right away, we say, "Well, that must not be the will of God" - and we move on to another thing. But we must keep praying.
The great British preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "When you have great desires for heavenly things, when your desires are such as God approves of, when you will what God wills, then you may will what you like."
God works according to his own timetable. But sometimes he will inspire us to pray with persistence, and as we pray in that way, we have, in a sense, aligned our will with his, and we will see the answer. He wants us to participate in the process.
What do you really want right now? Is it the removal of some kind of problem in your life? Then don't give up. Keep praying.
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