I think sometimes God is watching to see how earnestly we want Him. There is an encounter captured in Mark, chapter 7, between a woman and Jesus that seems to illustrate this. A woman, who is not Jewish, has come to fall at Jesus' feet to beg for healing for her daughter (who is possessed by an evil spirit). Jesus has responded instantly to other, similar requests, but pushes back at this one. He knows, or recognizes, that she is not Jewish and says, "First I should feed the children-my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs." This sounds like a cruel attitude and statement but rather than turning away the woman presses in. She answered, "That's true, Lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children's plates." Jesus praises her, saying, "Good answer", and he set the little girl free of the evil spirit. In a sense none of us is worthy to receive the touch...the healing...the grace of the Lord. We are all like "dogs under the table". But we come out of need to the only one who can truly make right what is wrong. There is no one else who can. Like the woman in this encounter we need to humbly fall before Jesus and, yet persistently cling to the sure hope that He can and will do what we cannot do! This is grace and this is faith and this is the work of trusting.
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blessings,
Rob Smith
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