From the desk of Pastor Ben

Jesus’ Response To Great Faith

Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.     (Matthew 15:28)

The Canaanite woman’s seeking heart did not give up. Her faith remained great to the end of this encounter with Jesus — and undoubtedly beyond. Her faith grew strong through God’s testing, just as Abraham’s did (Romans 4:20). Similar to Jacob wrestling with the Lord (Genesis 32:26), the woman would not let go until the Lord blessed her. She witnessed the promise of God fulfilled, which says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and I will restore your fortunes” (Jeremiah 29:13-14a).

Sensing and hearing what He needed to know about the woman’s character, Jesus was greatly pleased with her response and declared, “O woman, your faith is great.” She did not even hear the Sermon on the Mount, but came to the Lord with the kind of humble, mourning, meek, and seeking heart god requires for entrance into His kingdom (Matthew 5:3-6). She displayed the earnest approach described in Luke 13:24 and 16:16 of straining every nerve and vigorously pressing forward to enter the kingdom.

Because of her great faith so humbly and persistently displayed and rightly directed toward Him, the Lord Jesus granted the woman’s desire that her daughter be delivered from a demon. As Spurgeon has observed, “The Lord of glory surrendered to the faith of the woman.” She truly followed Christ’s instruction of “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

Ask Yourself:
God acts for His own good purposes. There’s not a magic word or a certain level of enthusiasm on our part that finally attracts attention. And yet He thrills at the sight of “great” faith in His children. How could you act in “great” faith in the face of your current circumstances?