DAY 4

Refuse to Be Denied

JOHN MACDONALD, LEAD PASTOR

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. —Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

One of the irreversible laws in the Kingdom is that God will not deny the hungry. I’m not talking about food. I’m talking about spiritual hunger, our hunger for Him! There are several stories throughout the New Testament that communicate how important spiritual hunger is to the Lord.

In the Gospels there are people who layi hold of Jesus and received things from Jesus that others didn’t receive. In Matthew 15:21–28 we find one of these people. This is the story of a Canaanite woman who was desperate for her daughter to be healed from demon possession. The story is less about the miracle of freedom for the daughter than about the persistence and hunger of the mother. Let’s read the story verse by verse and allow the Holy Spirit to speak deeply into us.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” —Matthew 15:21-22

The obvious desperation in this woman's voice tells me that she had sought out relief and healing for her daughter from everyone and everywhere she could think of with no results.

Verse 23: Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

Jesus ignores her! He doesn’t even acknowledge her, not even a turn of His head to look at her. This whole situation seems messy and awkward. Yet, the woman presses through the first denial and decides if she can’t get freedom for her daughter from Jesus, she will get it from His disciples. But let's face the facts; if Jesus wasn’t going to give her any of His attention, neither were they. Finally, they approach Jesus, complaining about this woman who keeps crying out after them, and they ask Him to send her away.

Verse 24: He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Finally Jesus acknowledges this woman, but the acknowledgement comes in the form of another denial. In verse 25 the woman comes immediately and kneels before Him, and says “Lord, help me!” This is pretty incredible if you think about it. The woman presses through the first denial of Jesus, then the second denial by His disciples, and now the third denial, and she comes and falls at His feet in worship. My goodness, can you believe it? Would you fall at the feet in worship if you had been denied not once but 3 times?

Verse 25–26: The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

Jesus calls her a dog. These words give us such a clear picture of the culture of that time. The Jews had no love for the Gentiles. The Jews considered all Gentiles to be dogs. It was the worst, most highly offensive, demeaning name you could call someone. And this woman could have easily been offended and walked away from Jesus, like so many in the church do today. They get offended by something the pastor said or by something one of the other church attenders did, or they get offended when their sin is called out. And in their offense they choose to walk away. This woman, who had now been denied four times, could have taken offense, but she just keeps coming. Listen to her response in the next verse.

Verse 27: “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Wow! She responds with an act of intercession. She doesn’t care what this looks like; she doesn’t care about the awkwardness; she doesn’t care how the disciples view her or what they think of her. She will take whatever Jesus will give her.

Verse 28: Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

This woman pressed through the barriers, through the denials, through the awkwardness and laid hold of Jesus and got what she was asking for. There is nothing in the passage that suggests the daughter is anywhere near. But at that moment, because she was hungry for what only Jesus could give her, because she refused to be denied and pressed through all the obstacles, she received what she asked for.

Are you hungry to lay hold of Jesus more than anything else in this life? Do you possess the hunger and tenacity of this Canaanite woman who refused to be denied? Is your prayer life a relentless pursuit to lay hold of Jesus? There are people who lay hold of Jesus and received things from Jesus that others didn’t because they wouldn’t quit and pursued Him with desperate hunger!

PRAYER

Read these scriptures below and pray asking God to give you a fresh and renewed hunger for Him.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. —Psalm 42:1–2

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. —Psalm 27:4

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. —Psalm 63:1–5