For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray ©1995 by Discipleship Publications
International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is excerpted
and adapted from a chapter by Randy McKean who now serves as an evangelist and
elder in Northern Virginia.
A
Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of
David, have mercy on me! My daughter is
suffering terribly from demon-possession. . .” He replied, “It is not right to
take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”[puppy dogs] “Yes, Lord,”
she said, “but even the dogs [wild dogs] eat the crumbs that fall from their
master’s table.” Then Jesus answered, “Woman,
you have great faith! Your request is granted” (Matthew 15:21-28).
Reasoning with God in prayer is an expression of great faith
and God always rewards faith-especially
great faith! This is one of the two
times in the New Testament where Jesus commends a person for having “great
faith.” Certainly the Canaanite woman
was persistent but, more than that, she reasoned
with Jesus. Initially, no one listened
to her plea. Then she was told “No” with
a short explanation. Eventually she was
told “No” again with a further explanation.
At this point, she began to reason with Jesus which demonstrated a deep
belief concerning his ability to heal her daughter. Jesus did not take offense at this-in fact he was quite
impressed! He appreciated her expression
of great faith.
Remember for a moment the persistent widow of Luke
18:1-8. She went to the judge every day
and did what anyone would do with a judge-she
reasoned her case before him. Each day
she must have come with more reasons why he should grant her request. The implications of this are fantastic. By reasoning with God, we can actually change
his mind! We cannot change the eternal purposes of God nor the eternal truths
of God, but we can change his mind on how his purposes will be
accomplished.
True humility is the key to the prayer of reason-we are not telling God
what to do as if we knew better-we
are expressing our outlook and giving reasons to back up our thinking. To take the time and put forth the effort of
reasoning our heart’s desires and dreams demonstrates how deeply we believe God
has the power and the love to act on our requests.
This quiet encouraging and how humbling. The peristent widow come each day with a reason why she has to be granted her plea. Negative responses from the judged did not make her to give her instead the reason to depend more on God. I pray that God will help to be the kind of a person who perists. God bless
ReplyDeleteThis makes me want to become a "Canaanite woman" and a "persistent widow!"
ReplyDeleteI am going through this right now with my daughter who has brain cancer. I want God and Jesus to heal her right now. I try and be persistent. I think I need to try and reason with Him. I think He wants to have our hearts, minds, souls, and all of our strength. I can't quit asking. I can't quit begging. I can keep calling on God and Jesus and their goodness, compassion and love. That is what appealing to them with reason is I think. My daughter is named Audrey. Please pray for her if any of you reading this is moved in your heart to pray. All Glory be to Jesus. I hope I bring you Glory through my prayers Jesus, just like this woman did so long ago...
ReplyDeleteAnomymous: will pray for Audrey, may God heal her soon! Tom, thank you!!!!
DeleteAwesomereflection on humility behind reasoning..will try AGAIN!
To the mother of Audrey, thanks for sharing this with us. Prayed for her his morning.
ReplyDelete