Have you ever felt unworthy to have your prayers answered? Unworthy even to pray?

Have you ever felt unworthy to have your prayers answered? Unworthy even to pray? There was a lady in Matthew 15 whose experience will encourage you. She was a Gentile in Palestine where the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles was strained.

She had a child "vexed with a devil" (vss. 21-28). She knew that the Jews considered her ethnic group as "dogs." She saw Jesus and His disciples as being the princes of the realm; she and her daughter were unworthy paupers, born to be that way. Dogs are what they are, they can't graduate. But she had some faith in Jesus as "the Son of David," the Messiah. So she asked, that is, prayed, that He would deliver her child from the vexation of the devil.

Jesus acted strangely indifferent: "He answered her not a word" (vs. 23; have you ever prayed and got not a word back in answer?). Then she pathetically appealed to His disciples, "Do something for me!" But they walked on arrogantly, asking Jesus to discourage her. "Send her away; for she crieth after us." Then Jesus said something that sounded very hard to the lady: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In other words, I can't answer your prayer; you are just a Gentile! Only the princes of the realm can have their requests granted, not the paupers!

But the lady wouldn't give up (a good lesson, right there!). She flung herself at His feet so He couldn't move (reminiscent of Jacob holding on to the Angel so He couldn't leave). "Lord, help me!" Desperation in her voice and eyes. Then Jesus was most uncharacteristic: He threw her a put-down that makes me tremble; what would I have done in her place? "It is not proper to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs" (vs. 26). By this time, would I have given up and gone home? Not this lady: "Truth, Lord." I agree; I don't try to argue; I am a dog. "Yet the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the family table!" She is on her knees in front of Him, the cold-hearted Twelve watching. She is matching Him with sublime repartee. A female Gentile/Jacob wrestling with the Angel!

And what did the Lord do? He invited her, Come up, sit at the table, you are no dog. Your faith proves that you belong there with greater right than so-called sons and daughters of Abraham: "O woman, great is thy faith" (vs. 28). We know nothing of her life experience. Maybe the daughter was illegitimate. But "this Man receiveth sinners" (Luke 15:2). Not only did she have "faith," she had some sanctified wit. Come to Him today; remind Him that unworthy as you may be, He will respect your faith (John 6:37).