Mark 7:24-30

²⁴ From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not hide from being noticed, ²⁵ and a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she replied to him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ And he said to her, “Because you said that, you may go– the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

faith motivated by love

This story highlights the odds against this foreign mother getting deliverance for her daughter. Jesus was still trying to reach his own fellow Israelites with the message of his coming kingdom. He was also trying to get away from the public limelight, and deliverance of this little girl was bound to thwart that effort. It was not fair to ask Jesus to use his supernatural power here. But it was faith, motivated by a mother’s love for her daughter. It was also humility expressing that faith in the terms she used, asking for grace.

Sometimes people teach prayer as if it is a way of demanding one’s rights to be healed, or get what you want by virtue of the covenant promises. I tried that, and I found that it does not work. We would do better following the path of this foreign mother. She prayed for grace, motivated by love.

LORD, we do not deserve your grace, but nobody does. We humbly beg you to intervene, for your glory, to meet our needs, and to help those we love.