Teachings on prayer from Jesus and the Gentile woman.

::::::::

A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, and "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. -- Matthew 15: 22-28 (NLT)

Sometimes we can over-mystify what God has made pretty clear. We can wrap up something simple in grand pageantry that leaves most confused or at least uncertain. Prayer seems to be one of those things. One of the top fears I have witnessed in church over the years is praying in front of other people. Part of that might be because of the person we all know who is so gifted in public prayer. But God hears the small prayers and the large ones. And in this story above in the Gospel of Matthew we see a wealth of insight from God to us on the subject of prayer.

We see here the story of a gentile woman coming to Jesus as a picture of prayer when we come before the Lord. Now at this time, salvation had not yet come to the gentiles so this woman was asking for what was supposed to be reserved for the chosen people of God, the Jews. Jesus gives her no reply at first. The first lesson about prayer that we see is that while God will always hear our prayers, sometimes at first we will not hear an answer back. Some may wonder about this but James reinforces it:

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. -- James 4: 3 (NIV)

Let's face it, sometimes we do not hear because we are asking with impure motives. Or we are asking with unforgiveness harbored in our hearts against another. There can be any number of sin issues that could block our ability to hear properly from God. In this woman's case she was not even a follower of God. Sometimes we can get confused in our walks and think God is saying no, when we really are not even hearing from Him at all because something is blocking the communication. We need to examine our lives and cleanse our walk from the sin that can easily destroy our prayer life with God. The Prophet Isaiah teaches us:

It's your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. -- Isaiah 59: 2 (NLT)

It is not a matter of hearing. There is nothing wrong with the auditory capabilities of God. It is a matter of listening.

Secondly, we can be assured that we will face discouragement in our prayer life. Look at the response from the disciples here! Tell her to go away! She is bothering us with all her begging! We too will face discouragement from the world that will tell us God does not listen. We will face discouragement even from within the church. These were the disciples of Jesus who were insisting that He send this woman away! "Your child is demon possessed? Yeah, whatever -- tell your story walking." How sad. But don't we see the same thing sometimes within our own Christian circles? People would rather say -- "I'll pray for you" -- rather than taking the two minutes out to actually pray. The sad truth is most Christians are not comfortable discussing any problems they may need prayer for because they fear judgment from fellow Christians. We are always too quick to bury our wounded. I have seen and heard the most callous and insensitive remarks from people who claim the mantle of Christianity. Sure it is wrapped up in Christianese so they can feel spiritual but it is devoid of the love and compassion of Christ. Yet what was the only new commandment Jesus gave us?

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." -- John 13: 34-35 (NLT)

Jesus didn't say they will know we are disciples by our sense of superiority or super-spirituality. Sometimes a person needs a hug and a prayer -- not a Bible verse.

Thirdly, what do we need to do when we face discouragement? We need to persevere in prayer! This woman could have just slinked away after receiving no answer from Jesus. She could have felt wounded in her pride or even self-righteous -- I mean who can refuse a sick child! He didn't even answer me! The truth is that we do not persevere in prayer very well anymore. We believe in a microwave society where we get what we want yesterday. But look at the Bible and see how long sometimes it takes for prayers to be answered.

A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed." Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. -- Mark 5: 25-29 (NLT)

Twelve long years of endless suffering. Twelve years of being an outcast being considered in a constant state of being unclean. The worldly solutions of her day only furthered the suffering. Not only that but she must have been well off for Mark to mention her money and that in the pursuit of the worldly solutions she had exhausted all of her temporal riches only to find her condition worse! How many can feel her pain? The answers of this world rarely solve our problems and certainly never as well as God can. But we must persevere. How many of us would have given up by now? Twelve years of bleeding only to see the condition grow worse and become destitute. How many of us would have truly been pushing through that crowd to touch the hem of His garment? This woman had a persevering faith; an overcoming faith. That is how God intends for us to approach our prayer life. Not everything happens according to our timeline. God knew exactly when Joseph would be ready to leave prison and rule Egypt. But Joseph had to wait 13 years for the answer to his prayers. David was anointed King of Israel but had to spend the next 15 years waiting for the deliverance of the promise while trying to not be killed by Saul. Twelve years. Thirteen years. Fifteen years. But you have to possess two things the woman with the issue of blood had. You must believe that God will answer you and you must push through the discouragement.

Continuing in the key story we see Jesus does answer the woman and tells her His answer is "no." He politely explains why, but His answer is no. The next lesson we need to learn about prayer is that the answer does not always go our way. Do you think that the woman with the blood issue only prayed after 12 years? Or Joseph only prayed for release after 13 years? Of course not. They had been praying all along and not giving up. God has three possible answers -- yes, no, and wait. Unfortunately we tend to approach prayer in the mindset of only accepting a yes answer. We can even read a yes into our prayer when He has not said yes. That is how much we are pursuing OUR will. Instead we need to seek His will only.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is --his good, pleasing and perfect will. -- Romans 12: 2 (NIV)

This is especially true in the realm of prayer. When it comes to prayer we need to move away from the thinking of this world. We need to renew our mind when it comes to prayer. The main concept we truly need to internalize is that the answer of no or wait is still a good answer. We need to seek God not for approval but for His will. We believe that we serve a God that sees all time. He sees what would happen if we got our way and sometimes His answer is no or wait. We need to trust that those answers are always in our best interest:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -- Romans 8: 28 (NIV)

This is a pivotal verse for our faith. It is a verse we need to get deep down in our soul. It needs to be a lynchpin for our beliefs. God sees what would happen if you get that promotion. God sees what happens if you were to move. God sees what would happen if you were to hit lotto. We may not see why the no or wait answer is in our best interest but Romans 8: 28 assures us that it is.

Lastly, we see the key to prayer which is sorely lacking today, humility. Jesus explains to her in no uncertain terms that she is not entitled to the healing she is seeking and in doing so draws an unfavorable comparison of the woman to a dog. How many of us would have had our pride well up inside of us and storm away at this point? How many of us would have been indignant? Yet this woman not only persevered but she lowered herself as low as she could go to obtain the answer to her prayers. She empties herself of any pride whatsoever in agreeing with the Lord in His analogy. The result is Jesus answers her prayers and heals her daughter.

Yet how often do we truly approach the Lord in this manner when it comes to prayer? How often is prayer just a "whine list" for God to fix? How often do we treat God like an ATM for our whims? This is partly because of the poor "bless-me" theology that so much of modern Christianity has become. We start to think that we are somehow owed something from God for "good behavior" when the reality is that our good behavior benefits us! How many times have I heard Christian lament that they have "given up all the fun things" for God as opposed to being delivered from them! The bless me theology reinforces a poor and inaccurate image of who God is. God is the one who has already blessed you! He has already saved you if you have a true relationship with Jesus Christ today. He has written your name in the Lambs Book of Life! Instead of "bless me" we should be centered on "thank you."

Humility is the key but the truth is that we can start to think more of ourselves because of our religiosity as opposed to our relationship. As long as we stay focused on our relationship with God then we will always remember our place. That relationship is one of sinner and Savior. One who was going to hell and one who saved me from going to hell. How can I ever approach my Savior with anything other than reverent awe? How can I so easily dismiss what He has done for me in pursuit of what I think I want now? God gave us a parable to explain it. Two people going to pray in the temple. The first was a Pharisee, the religious expert of his day. Well respected by men, knew Scriptures, and thought more of himself than God. This was his prayer:

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: "I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don't cheat, I don't sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' -- Luke 18: 11-12 (NLT)

In this one small "prayer" there are no less than eight "I" statements. Prayer is about God and your relationship to Him, not about you! He claims to not be a sinner, brags about his fasting, and doesn't even give God credit for the income he makes! There is not a sliver of humility in this prayer and while we may not approach God in such an obviously prideful manner -- we can get sloppy. The tax collector he refers to prayed this prayer:

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, "O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' -- Luke 18: 13 (NLT)

Humble in prayer. We are all sinners before a Holy God. The only righteousness we ever have is because of the blood of Jesus Christ. This man went home justified before God the Scripture teaches us because he sought to humble himself.

Prayer is our lifeline to God. It is one of our primary sources for communication with God. It is how we hear from God and how we find His will for our lives. But like a child we sometimes approach the Father only to hear the word "yes." We rarely approach Him actually trying to understand His heart, His reasoning, and His will. Sometimes we will get a yes answer but only when we are truly lined up with His will. Other times we will the answer of no or wait. All answers from God must be acceptable. What He says no to is also a blessing. What He says no to is also in our best interest. We need to check our motives and seek His will. Lastly, we need to do so with utter humility before God. Of never forgetting who He is and who we are -- sinners before a Holy God. Worthy of eternal punishment yet saved by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. If I receive no further "blessing" in this life -- He has given me everything already!

Reverend Anthony Wade -- May 14, 2012

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.