Faith in Action Day 1

<span;>Today, as we discuss about faith in action,  I’m going to talk about the Canaanite woman talked about in Matthew 15:21-28. Imagine being at a point in your life when there is nothing but pain and desperation. When you have tried everything possible to ease that pain with no luck. And then, when you’re at the end of the rope, there comes someone with the very thing that you have been looking for, the very last solution to your problem. But then they say “No! This was not meant for you. I’ve saved it for someone who deserves it more than you do.”

<span;>The Bible says in Matthew 15:21-28 Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.” But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.” Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.” But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!” Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.” “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

<span;>This passage is centered around the conversation between Jesus and this Gentile woman. We see a mother’s intense and persistent love for her child at a time when it would seem that Jesus was ignoring her. This is a desperate mother. A mother who had tried everything that her culture and her gods had to offer as a cure for her child and nothing had worked. And then she hears of a man, a different man, who has visited her country. A man who has a reputation of healing people suffering from even worse afflictions than her daughter. Imagine the relief she must have felt when she saw him. She had jumped the last hurdle, or so she thought. After all the obstacles she had faced, here was salvation. Here was healing!

<span;>But then what happens? Jesus fails to answer her and his disciple interpret this as rejection. They see his silence as his way of saying that he wants her gone and even urge him to send her away. After all, she was a gentile, a Canaanite, born of the enemies of Israel. This mother had been through enough pain but right when she beheld the person she knew had the answer to her troubles, she was met with the rebuke of his disciples. As if that wasn’t enough, Jesus, her last hope and the most compassionate person she had ever heard about, told her that he was not sent to help her kind. Could anything be more devastating than that? Anyone would give up at this point. Just throw in the towel and surrender to fate. Besides, what’s the point of going on when the only person who can help outrightly tells you no?

<span;>But the woman came right back and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!” Just when everyone would have expected her to crumble in despair, just after she had faced another hindrance, she looked up to him and pleaded, “Lord, help me!” She turned away from her trouble and looked upon the very face of love, the very face of compassion, because she knew that therein lay her hope of salvation. She knew that in him lay the solution to her trouble and in a show of faith and resilience, she knelt before him and pleaded her case for the second time, undeterred by what had transpired before that. Nothing could have discouraged her. Not her daughter’s sickness, not the rebuke of the disciples, not even being likened to a dog. She even found words of response,  I don't mind the scraps , I don't mind the scraps.

<span;>She had a strong enough faith in the person of Jesus that even after the humbling and painful testing she had gone through, it had remained persistent. In the midst of the storm she was in, she never took her eyes off the only person who had the power and authority to calm that storm. She acknowledged and praised him in the midst of it. Such tenacity doesn’t come unless with faith. It takes faith, active faith, for one to keep asking, to keep seeking, to keep knocking in such circumstances and criticism. This is what Jesus praised her for. Her faith. This is what got her daughter the long-awaited healing. Not even her history, rebuke, suffering or race could stand in the way of such pure faith.

<span;>It takes faith to believe in the works of Christ. It takes faith to walk in his ways, to rely and put our entire hope in his promises. It is a gift imparted in us by God. A homing beacon for us when things seem bleak. It is this kind of faith, our faith in Jesus, a faith in its purest form, that will keep us on our feet when everything around us comes crumbling down. It is with this kind of faith that we will outlast illnesses, breakdowns, criticisms and everything the world will hurl at us. Faith in the person, in the compassion, in the love and in the promises of our Lord Jesus.Put your faith in Action today.  This is Pastor Lucy Paynter with your Daily Insights and this is Faith in Action Day one Shalom</span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;></span;>