How do you normally approach God? Do we come to Him with determination and passion? Or as someone whom we turn to only when it’s convenient? To drop Him a line only when we can?
The way we approach Him reveals a lot about ourselves – do I really need Him? How much do I really depend on Him? Do I actually trust Him? Is He really indispensable in my life or not?
This awareness – that we need Him – ought to be there in our life! All the time!
• Sadly this is not the case, most of the time. That’s why God allows things to happen in our lives that would shake us up our sloppiness, from our lethargy and get us back to Himself.
• Sometimes we need to come to the end of our own road to find Christ there, to realize how much we have neglected Him, or ignored Him.
This woman showed us the way we ought to approach God:
1. Pull by Hope - CLING onto the HOPE we have in Jesus
2. Push by Faith - PERSIST in FAITH no matter what
CLING ONTO THE HOPE WE HAVE IN JESUS
There is always hope in God. In Christ, we have an endless hope.
What drives this woman – hope! She saw in Jesus a hope – that her daughter could be healed.
In fact, Jesus was her only hope. Who else can get a demon out of her daughter?
It was a chance of a lifetime. This was the only time Jesus went out of Palestine, and into a Gentile vicinity of Tyre (and Sidon, according to Matthew). To rest from persistent questioning by Pharisees?
• It was very difficult for her – she was not a Jew, a Gentile. No one in that place would trust Jesus.
• Yet she came publicly begging Jesus – without shame or any other considerations.
• Jesus was her only hope – she came crying out, pouring her heart out for her daughter!
The shocker comes - Matthew tells us more – Jesus did not answer a word (Matt 15:23)
• She faced utter disappointment – Jesus apparently walked on.
• The disciples found her a nuisance and asked Jesus to “send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” (Matt 15:23)
• Mark this - here was a praying mother, and a silent Jesus.
Do you find yourself here? We prayed and there was total silence from His side.
• The disciples even find her a nuisance – can you imagine, a crying mom pleading for help.
• Where is the compassion? Where is their faith in their master? Don’t they believe that Jesus can do something? Apparently not!
Now, why did Matthew tells us this shameful detail?
• To tell us that they were wrong! The woman did right. She persisted. She persevered.
• Jesus indeed had compassion and did eventually grant her request.
Look at Jesus’ response – “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” (Mark 7:27) – in God’s scheme of things, the Jews are the ones that must hear the Gospel first.
And she said, “Yes Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (v.28)
• Yes, I cannot get a full meal – I am not demanding a proper meal – even dogs get something out of the crumbs on the floor!
• I know I don’t really deserve it – I’m pleading for mercy, for your grace.
• She may not understand everything, but she believes that Jesus is merciful and compassionate enough to help her.
• Even those little crumbs – I would be satisfied. Do that little for me!
Jesus responded: “For such a reply…” (v.29) Matthew: “Woman, you have great faith!” (Mt 15:28)
SO SHE WAS RIGHT, AND THE DISCIPLES WERE WRONG.
• She did not give up. She pressed on, believing that Jesus could and would help her.
• All her hopes were on this man Jesus, and He was able, she knew He was able…
• This hope kept her coming. We give up because we lost hope.
That’s prayer - “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.” (Philip Brooks)
What keeps us going – hope in God – hope in a good God!
"There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them."
A group of scientists put some rats in a tank of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was 17 minutes.
Then, they repeated the experiment, but this time they let in a piece of wood and "rescued" the rats just before the point of drowning, dried them off, put them back into their cages and fed them. After a few days, they were put through the experiment. This time, the average survival time for these rats increased tremendously.
The scientists explained that phenomenon by pointing out that the second time around, the rats had HOPE. They believed that they could survive this because they had done so before.
How serious are we when we come to Jesus? Are we as determined, because we believe God is merciful and compassionate, and will surely help us? Are we driven by this hope in God?
There are no hopeless situations in Christ; therefore we do not give up hope.
NO DEAD END, ONLY A BEND IN THE ROAD
When we feel we have nothing left to give
And we are sure that the "song has ended" -
When our day seems over and the shadows fall
And the darkness of night has descended.
Where can we go to find strength
To valiantly keep on trying?
Where can we find the hand that will dry
The tears that the heart is crying -
There’s but one place to go and that is to God
And, dropping all pretence and pride,
We can pour out our problems without restraint
and gain strength with Him at our side –
and together we stand at life’s crossroads
And view what we think is the end.
But God has a much bigger vision
And He tell us it’s "only a bend" -
For the road goes on and is smoother.
And the "pause in the song" is a "rest."
And the part that’s unsung and unfinished
Is the sweetest and richest and best -
So rest and relax and grow stronger.
Your work is not finished or ended.
You’ve just come to "A Bend in the Road."
… Author Unknown
The obvious thing we learn from this woman is her persevering spirit.
PERSIST IN FAITH NO MATTER WHAT
• Her behaviour was like that of Jacob, when he met an angelic being in Gen 32:24-26
• He wrestled with him all night. Jacob would not quit wrestling.
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
Andrew Murray says to persevere in prayer is one of the greatest mysteries about prayer - that the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked, time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand.
It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties - when, after persevering pleading, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our lazy flesh to think that we must now cease praying, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request.
It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When once faith has taken its stand on God’s Word and the Name of Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek God’s will and honor alone in its prayer, it need not be discouraged by delay.
God says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with ALL your heart.” (Jer 29:13)
• Why ALL your heart? A reflection of your attitude… did you come with faith? Did you come clinging on to the hope we have in Him?
• If we believe Him to be a good God, a merciful and compassionate God, then hold on tight to that hope and keep praying.
• Even as Abraham through so many years "against all hope, he in hope believed…" (Rom 4:18), and then "followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Heb 6:12)
Many today give up too fast. Little problems and we give up on God.
DON’T BE LIKE THE CHEETAH
The cheetah catches its prey with sudden burst of speed. It can sprint up to 110km/h but only in short bursts. While it has a very little body (readily bent) that is built for speed, it has a tiny heart, which gives it no staying power. Unless it catches its prey in its first burst of energy, it has to give up the chase.
“If you want to give it to me, fine. Otherwise, forget it!”
Like a stonecutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two.
Someone may just see the last blow - wow, one blow at it splits!
You know that is not true. It was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.
Would we have given up much earlier?
Story of a man in heaven where he was shown cabinets of prayer requests – answered one, and then another about to be answered, but no chance because the person stopped praying.
Now it would be hard to see at a casual reading of this story that the Lord Jesus was willing at all to meet this woman’s need - but we know He was, don’t we?
• Some say Jesus wanted to draw her out in faith, others said it was meant to teach the disciples a lesson about faith… we really do not know.
• A child so often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the farmer knows how to wait until the proper time.
God wants us to be serious about coming to Him.
• CLING TO THE HOPE WE HAVE.
• PERSEVERE IN FAITH.
We need to have this striving spirit in prayer - John Wesley: “Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.”
• Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.
• Satan has a measured power to hinder our prayers – Daniel fasted and prayed for 21 days – the angel was dispatched to help him right on the first day, but he was hindered by demons in the spiritual realm.
• Eventually he reached Daniel on the 21st day. One thing we learn from this: Satan may have power at times to hinder our prayers in measure, but he has very little power against persevering prayer.
Prayer with God is more like a Chinese dinner rather than a MacDonald drive-through - get what we want and off we go.
• Very often, we have no heart to ask. We feel that we don’t really need His help.
Let me close with a quotataion from C.H. Spurgeon with regards to prayer:
“Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom, asking. ’Ask, and ye shall receive’ (John 16:24). It is a rule that never will be altered in anybody’s case. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the elder brother of the family, but God has not relaxed the rule even for him. Remember this text: Jehovah says to his own Son (Psalm 2:8), ’Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession’. If the royal and divine Son of God cannot be exempted from the rule of asking that he may have, you and I cannot expect the rule to be relaxed in our favor. Why should it be? What reason can be given why we should be exempted from prayer? What argument can there be why we should be deprived of the privilege and delivered from the necessity of supplication? I can see none: can you? God will bless Elijah and send rain on Israel, but Elijah must pray for it. If the chosen nation is to prosper Samuel must plead for it. If the Jews are to be delivered Daniel must intercede. God will bless Paul, and the nations will be converted through him, but Paul must pray. Indeed he did pray without ceasing; his epistles show that he expected nothing except by asking for it. If you may have everything by asking, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is, and I beseech you to abound in it.”
