Not because me, but because of You Lord!
Illus. From Guideposts, “Miracles of Healing”
There was a woman and her son Mark that went shopping in a large department store one day. On their way down to the main floor her son hopped on the escalator. She then followed. Suddenly her son Mark screamed like she never had heard him scream before.
Mama mama, my foot, momma help!
Marks right foot was wedged between the side of the moving step in the escalator wall. His body was twisted around and around and he was screaming with pain as the escalator continued downward.
In the panic of the moment, the danger at the bottom of the escalator flashed before her eyes, as she thought his foot would be severed.
Turn off the escalator she screamed loudly, somebody please help. And then, oh dear God, dear God, help us help us. Several people at the base of the elevator rushed around in a flury of activity, then the escalator suddeny stopped!
Someone had pressed the emergency button at the top of the steps.
Thank you God she sighed as she continued praying. Mark clutched to her arm and cried while she struggled to get a better look at his foot.
A chill reached up her spine as she sat there seeing the tiny space with him and his foot was trapped in what looked no more than a quarter of an inch wide. All she could see of his foot, was his heel. The rest had disappeared into the jaws of the escalator.
Somebody call the fire department she shouted. Her little boy Mark looked up at her so desperately, mama mama mama, please mama! She sat next to him holding him and she prayed for a miracle. For a moment he quieted down but soon he began crying loudly screaming daddy daddy daddy.
Thinking someone might call her husband she began to shout his phone number and the number of where he worked and the name of the business he worked at.
Then what seemed to her like an eternity, she patted his head and he cried. Thoughts of wheelchairs and crutches flooded the images of her mind.
No Little League, no soccer matches, everything of the future seemed so uncertain.
She prayed and prayed, thinking to her self trying to find a Bible verse she could hold onto. Romans 8:28 came to her mind “and we know all things
Work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose!”
With all the authority she could muster up, she thought to her self. Lord! You promised Lord and you know all things Lord, make them work together for good! Like a recorder on auto play, those thoughts raced over and over through her mind!
A few moments later her little boy Mark looked up at her and said, “mama my bones feel broken and my foot hurts awful” She embraced him even greater than she had up until this point fearful that he might faint and go into shock, at the same time fearing the same might happen to her.
She thought, oh Lord I know you’re here, but where are you Lord? I need your help! At that moment she felt a warm soft arm embrace her from behind. A woman’s soothing voice said quietly in her ear Jesus is here, Jesus is here!
The woman said both calmly and reassuredly, “tell your son Jesus is here and his foot is all right” Tell him you’ll buy him a new pair of shoes and whatever he wants when this is all over!
At that moment, Mark stopped crying and said, “cowboy boots, cowboy boots that’s what I want, I want cowboy boots just like daddy’s!” The woman also said tell him they’ll be no broken bones.
As she told him, hope came rushing in for the first time since the ordeal began and replaced her doubt! No sooner then the words leaving her lips the woman and instructed her to tell her son, the fireman arrived on the scene.
With a crowbar the firemen were able to pry the step away from the escalator wall, freeing Marks tiny foot at last. His shoe was ripped to shreds.
It took all the courage she had to watch as the men pulled his shredded sock off of his little foot, but when they did they revealed a red, bruised, but whole and complete foot!
It was a miracle, and she turned with joy to share the good news with the woman who had came and comforted her, all she saw was a faint image of her at the top of the escalator walking away.
Her husband Craig, arrived just as the firemen were sitting Mark down on the floor. The little boy was still crying, but wiggling every one of his toes. Later, at the hospital x-rays revealed what the woman had said confidently. That there would be no broken bones and there weren’t!
I never did find out the woman’s identity, the woman said. Only that when I prayed and asked God where He was, He came the moment I called on His name!
There is nothing like a mothers love, there’s nothing like God’s love, there’s nothing like a mothers love who loves God and is dependent on God’s love for her children!
Some of my most vivid memories of my mother, were the times she came to my bedside in the middle of the night when I cried out for her. Knowing only God could have awakened her and made it possible for her to here my silent whimper.
There’s only one thing stronger than a mothers love, Gods Love! Many mothers have prayed through and touched the hem of Jesus garment for their children.
Matt 15:21-28 NKJ
21 Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.”
23 But He answered her not a word.
And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.”
24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”
26 But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
27 And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
28 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.
The Pressures on our mothers today, are greater than ever. Its got to be one of the toughest jobs in the world.
And I think all ladies would agree with the statement..
"Once a mother, always a mother!" No matter how old your baby is..
Martha Stewart is considered to great woman, and a lot of mothers are compared to her TV persona. While all mothers can’t accomplish everything she displays on TV, in comparison and in real life Martha would be hard pressed to accomplish everything an individual mother accomplishes on a day to day basis for her family!
Mothers are expected to be super human, because of all the undaunting task required of them! Yet compassionate enough to possess a healing whisper and the gentle breathe required to miraculously take the sting away from a child’s boo boo!
The old saying still rings true today...The hand that rocks the cradle..rules the world. It has been said and I know it to be true from experience, no other force in the life of a child, is as strong as the influence of a Godly mother.
If there’s one thing as I look around in the world and think we need more of, “it would be Godly Mothers! Many say pray for our world leaders and their right. But I also say, pray for more Godly mothers in the world. Because I believe all the great leaders in the world have one thing in common, that’s right...a Godly Mother!
Proverbs 22:6 NKJ can't be stressed enough!
6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
That’s the best advice in the whole wide world you could give to a brand new mother, or a mother at any stage of life! In the every day life today, the pressures are greater
than they have ever been on all of our moms.
The Mother in out text:
She had a daughter who was demon-possessed.
I can't even imagine how it would be to deal with your child,
If they were demon possessed...no matter what age they were!
But there's one thing this woman realized, whatever was wrong with her daughter, had to bow down and was subjective to the name of Jesus!
I would encourage every mother here, whatever you or your family will every face has to bow down and submit the name of Jesus!
In verse 28 Jesus said the words every person who has ever prayed for a need to be met has wanted to hear! “You have great faith.” In four words Jesus summed up everything we need to know about this women, if we never knew anything else about this women!
She was in the elite status, as all the Bible heroes of faith are! Jesus never even said those words to his disciples, yet he said it to this woman with a Clarity! Yes she was human, she had wants and needs like every one else! But above all else, she had great faith!!
The MSG says it like this... “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
A few things we do know about this woman, she was a Canaanite, she was considered as an outcast and she had no right to ask Jesus for anything!
The Bible tells us Jesus searched for faith as a gem collector searches for fine jewels, and when He found faith He was filled with joy. And TBS says in Hebrews 11 that Jesus rewards the diligence of faith, when faith is displayed!
Washington Irving: “The love of a mother is never exhausted. It never changes—it never tires—it endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world’s condemnation, a mother’s love still lives on.”
Even though this mother was so bold as to what she wanted, it's interesting to note. She Made No Claim that she deserved anything because of who she was, only because of who Jesus was there!
She relied on the GRACE and GENEROSITY of JESUS and that's exactly what we should do everyday of our lives! Jesus wants us too, the Word compels us to come boldly before the throne and do exactly as this woman did!!
When Jesus told her that it didn’t seem right to take bread from the children of Israel and throw it to the little dogs of the Gentiles, she didn’t Clam up and walk away.
She said, “”True, Sir. I admit that I have no claim on You, but there must be some extra grace—some grace that I don’t deserve, and I’m appealing to You for that.”
She said, “not because of who I am...But Because of Who YOU ARE! Everything we receive is only based on our relationship with and fact who Jesus is!
Far to many times we’re too much about what we think we are, truth is we are nothing without God and His goodness towards us!
She acknowledged she was unworthy and none of us are worthy! We only receive worthiness status, because of Jesus worthiness He extends towards us!
No wonder Jesus replied, “Woman, you have great faith.”
No wonder at that moment His healing power supernaturally flowed to her daughters location and healed her!
It's no wonder were still talking about her 2000 years later!
Billy Graham once said, “Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.” And it’s true, heaven possesses every answer to every prayer!
Here’s a question I want you to give some serious thought to. What are you praying for and boldly asking God for today? Unlike this woman of faith we’ve talked about today, you don’t have to settle for crumbs. If you are a Christian, you have a seat reserved at and are entitled to sit at the table of the greatest buffet of goodness ever prepared!
Matthew 7:7-8 NKJ
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Illus. Unexpected money by Mathew Kratz
The true story a meat store owner told some time back:
The owner said: “one day a customer informed me she had gotten some unexpected money and wanted to fill her freezer. She picked out about $200 worth of meat and handed me her credit card."
Laughing, the owner said: "I thought you got some unexpected money."
"I did," she replied. "They raised the limit on my credit card."
Far to many Christians feel the same way when they approach God for their needs to be met. They feel as though they have a limit set as to what they can confidently ask God for, because what their asking for is limited to what only they think they can supply instead of believing God can and wants to supply!
We must quit cheating ourselves and realize asking in faith removes all our self imposed limits and releases Gods limitless capabilities to work all things together for good, for those who Love Him!
Whatever you ask of God, come in the faith and expectancy of a mothers heart and you will too, see your need become a miracle!
