Micca Monda Campbell
"Then Jesus answered, 'Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.'" Matthew 15:28 (NIV)
I used to covet others' faith. I'd watch the spiritual "giants" in my church and community and wonder why they were given a greater faith than me. It didn't seem fair. Even worse were people with great faith who never seemed to have any type of adversity. Do you know the kind of people I'm describing?
One day, I decided to get to know a person with obvious great faith. I think it was one of the best things I've done to increase my own faith. The first thing I learned was people with great faith got it from their abundance of trials, not from their lack of trials. Trusting God in one trouble gave them courage to trust Him in another. Before they knew it, they had developed great faith in God. Great faith didn't happen overnight; it was a process.
Through the course of trusting God, we discover several things about great faith. First, it leads to great undertakings. Take the Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter found in Matthew 15 – pause to read her story if you can. She cried out for Jesus to heal her daughter, but she received no response.
This action on Christ's part can seem confusing. Therefore, it is important to know that this woman was not only a Gentile, but was of Canaanite descent. The Canaanites were an immoral people God had commanded Israel to completely destroy during their invasion of Canaan under the command of Joshua. Israel did not fully obey God's order and some Canaanites survived the invasion. This woman was their descendant. Nonetheless, this didn't stop her from appealing to Jesus for mercy and help.
Annoyed by her attempts, the disciples urged Jesus to send her away. She was a nuisance to them, but to Jesus the woman was an example of great faith. She was determined to do whatever was necessary to get what she needed.
Great faith also brings about great expectations. If you're like me, you often don't expect great results from your labors and prayers. This is because we lack faith. This was not true of the Gentile woman. She expected the Savior to heal her daughter.
That's not all. Great faith awakens great earnestness. This woman didn't play by the rules so to speak. She didn't care what others thought about her actions. Crying, she fell at the feet of Jesus and worshiped Him. I've seen this kind of earnestness in others with great faith as well. They pray with persistence until God moves.
Great faith conquers great difficulties. The woman kept on pursuing Jesus, begging even though He reminded her of her position as a Gentile, not a Jew. Christ responded to her request, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs" (vs.26). In other words, why should He give her, a Gentile, what He had come to give the Jews?
Her answer to that was to agree with Him, "Yes, Lord." And then throw herself on His mercy again by adding, "…even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table" (vs. 27). She understood that even one morsel of God's power was more than enough to heal her daughter. Pleased with her faith, Jesus commended her.
Finally, great faith achieves great victories. Jesus rewarded the woman's faith by healing her daughter. Our difficulties can be overcome by expressing great faith in Christ's mercy and love, which provide for our needs.
Great faith isn't given to some and not to others. It is a choice we make to trust and pursue God even when at first there appears to be no response.
Dear Lord, my circumstances call for great faith. Today, I'm ready to undertake whatever I need to do in this situation. I expect You to hear and respond to all my concerns. With earnestness, I promise to seek Your will in this area so that I may be more than a conquer. Victory is already mine because I trust in You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Related Resources:
An Untroubled Heart: Finding Faith that is Stronger than My Fears by Micca Campbell
Birds in My Mustard Tree: How to Grow Your Faith by Susanne Scheppmann
Visit Micca’s blog
Application Steps:
Do not give up. Find a mentor with great faith and become their student.
Practice great faith by expecting God to hear and meet your needs.
Reflections:
Do you ask God to provide for a need and then try to take care of it yourself? If so, why?
Do you think following the example of the Gentile woman will increase your faith?
Power Verses:
Mark 9:23b, "Everything is possible for him who believes." (NIV)
Psalm 130:5, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, in his word I put my hope." (NIV)
© 2010 by Micca Campbell. All rights reserved.
"Then Jesus answered, 'Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.'" Matthew 15:28 (NIV)
I used to covet others' faith. I'd watch the spiritual "giants" in my church and community and wonder why they were given a greater faith than me. It didn't seem fair. Even worse were people with great faith who never seemed to have any type of adversity. Do you know the kind of people I'm describing?
One day, I decided to get to know a person with obvious great faith. I think it was one of the best things I've done to increase my own faith. The first thing I learned was people with great faith got it from their abundance of trials, not from their lack of trials. Trusting God in one trouble gave them courage to trust Him in another. Before they knew it, they had developed great faith in God. Great faith didn't happen overnight; it was a process.
Through the course of trusting God, we discover several things about great faith. First, it leads to great undertakings. Take the Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter found in Matthew 15 – pause to read her story if you can. She cried out for Jesus to heal her daughter, but she received no response.
This action on Christ's part can seem confusing. Therefore, it is important to know that this woman was not only a Gentile, but was of Canaanite descent. The Canaanites were an immoral people God had commanded Israel to completely destroy during their invasion of Canaan under the command of Joshua. Israel did not fully obey God's order and some Canaanites survived the invasion. This woman was their descendant. Nonetheless, this didn't stop her from appealing to Jesus for mercy and help.
Annoyed by her attempts, the disciples urged Jesus to send her away. She was a nuisance to them, but to Jesus the woman was an example of great faith. She was determined to do whatever was necessary to get what she needed.
Great faith also brings about great expectations. If you're like me, you often don't expect great results from your labors and prayers. This is because we lack faith. This was not true of the Gentile woman. She expected the Savior to heal her daughter.
That's not all. Great faith awakens great earnestness. This woman didn't play by the rules so to speak. She didn't care what others thought about her actions. Crying, she fell at the feet of Jesus and worshiped Him. I've seen this kind of earnestness in others with great faith as well. They pray with persistence until God moves.
Great faith conquers great difficulties. The woman kept on pursuing Jesus, begging even though He reminded her of her position as a Gentile, not a Jew. Christ responded to her request, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs" (vs.26). In other words, why should He give her, a Gentile, what He had come to give the Jews?
Her answer to that was to agree with Him, "Yes, Lord." And then throw herself on His mercy again by adding, "…even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table" (vs. 27). She understood that even one morsel of God's power was more than enough to heal her daughter. Pleased with her faith, Jesus commended her.
Finally, great faith achieves great victories. Jesus rewarded the woman's faith by healing her daughter. Our difficulties can be overcome by expressing great faith in Christ's mercy and love, which provide for our needs.
Great faith isn't given to some and not to others. It is a choice we make to trust and pursue God even when at first there appears to be no response.
Dear Lord, my circumstances call for great faith. Today, I'm ready to undertake whatever I need to do in this situation. I expect You to hear and respond to all my concerns. With earnestness, I promise to seek Your will in this area so that I may be more than a conquer. Victory is already mine because I trust in You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Related Resources:
An Untroubled Heart: Finding Faith that is Stronger than My Fears by Micca Campbell
Birds in My Mustard Tree: How to Grow Your Faith by Susanne Scheppmann
Visit Micca’s blog
Application Steps:
Do not give up. Find a mentor with great faith and become their student.
Practice great faith by expecting God to hear and meet your needs.
Reflections:
Do you ask God to provide for a need and then try to take care of it yourself? If so, why?
Do you think following the example of the Gentile woman will increase your faith?
Power Verses:
Mark 9:23b, "Everything is possible for him who believes." (NIV)
Psalm 130:5, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, in his word I put my hope." (NIV)
© 2010 by Micca Campbell. All rights reserved.
Labels: Balance, God's Perspective, Identity in Christ, Overcoming Fear, Prayer, Trusting God, Walking in Faith
12 Comments:
Faith is not as wonderful and sweet in our ear when we hear that word or someone share that. So many struggle, tears, pains and also time to make it real as a beautiful result. Why? because Faith is live a life in that personal. We can't judge someone has a faith or no just by his/her positive activities at church. Faith is something deep in life. Ya.. because it start from heart with HIM. We can't trust a big prob. with Him without a small first. Like this.. If we say that Mom is our best Mom it means that we know her as a best for us from a little thing up to the biggest we can't understand (even she can't solve all the prob. too)but we know that she is there for us to ask anything. That same with our Faith in HIM... from the little prob which solved by Him and flow to the next... next... and next the biggest and very difficult to solve with HIM. Even trouble, misery, or unusual thing we find. JUST HOLD and NEAR HIM... ya...that a simple word I always keep in my mind for many experiments I got. Not the easy way but a peace and overwhelm heart of joy will find after we bring that faith in pray at the time of misery come. Faith need to practice by that person.. not just to show but to make it life in our life.
Thanks to share,
Flora
Faith is not as wonderful and sweet in our ear when we hear that word or someone share that. So many struggle, tears, pains and also time to make it real as a beautiful result. Why? because Faith is live a life in that personal. We can't judge someone has a faith or no just by his/her positive activities at church. Faith is something deep in life. Ya.. because it start from heart with HIM. We can't trust a big prob. with Him without a small first. Like this.. If we say that Mom is our best Mom it means that we know her as a best for us from a little thing up to the biggest we can't understand (even she can't solve all the prob. too)but we know that she is there for us to ask anything. That same with our Faith in HIM... from the little prob which solved by Him and flow to the next... next... and next the biggest and very difficult to solve with HIM. Even trouble, misery, or unusual thing we find. JUST HOLD and NEAR HIM... ya...that a simple word I always keep in my mind for many experiments I got. Not the easy way but a peace and overwhelm heart of joy will find after we bring that faith in pray at the time of misery come. Faith need to practice by that person.. not just to show but to make it life in our life.
Thanks to share,
Flora
Faith is not as wonderful and sweet in our ear when we hear that word or someone share that. So many struggle, tears, pains and also time to make it real as a beautiful result. Why? because Faith is live in that personal. We can't judge someone has a faith or no just by his/her positive activities at church. Faith is something deep in life. Ya.. because it start from heart with HIM. We can't trust a big prob. with Him without a small first. Like this.. If we say that Mom is our best Mom it means that we know her as a best for us from a little thing up to the biggest we can't understand (even she can't solve all the prob. too)but we know that she is there for us to ask anything. That same with our Faith in HIM... from the little prob which solved by Him and flow to the next... next... and next the biggest and very difficult to solve with HIM. Even trouble, misery, or unusual thing we find. JUST HOLD and NEAR HIM... ya...that a simple word I always keep in my mind for many experiments I got. Not the easy way but a peace and overwhelm heart of joy will find after we bring that faith in pray at the time of misery come. Faith need to practice by that person.. not just to show but to make it life in our life.
Thanks to share,
Flora
It is also interesting to note that Jesus had 3 cananite ancestors Mathew ch 1, Tamar, Rahab and Ruth two of which showed their Great faith in the God of Isreal, and Tamar who was more just (in providing son`s for her dead husband,) then Juda and his remaing sons, some of God`s chosen people.
Well your article helped me truly much in my college assignment. Hats off to you send, choice look ahead in behalf of more cognate articles promptly as its one of my favourite topic to read.
I love that story of this woman, because of her determination that nothing and nobody is going to stop her from reaching her goal and live. It take Great Faith and Courage to go on with life when the nation of Isreal has been commanded to take your life, destroy you and all your family... Just thing about it!!... what she has been through, seen happen to the lives of her people and then go on with her life... Being looked down upon and even called a dog. Now thats low!!... Think about the trials that this woman must have experienced... I believe that in time thats how she began to trust God. She may have realize that it was by his grace that some of the Isrealite did not follow His command...so, we never may fully understand what it may take to have "Great Faith" except trails. Thanks, Micca you really got me thinking. Great post!
The ability to trust TOTALLY in God, is an amazing opportunity. For years, I to was one that didnt understand how to increase faith. I thought it may come by studying the word more, or building a closer relationship with God. I have learned as well that, it ONLY reaches the higher levels by trials, challenges, losses and victories. When issues occur in life, and we're placed in certain positions that require us to notice we have NOONE but God, that to will increase faith. When you come out on the other side, you MUST recognize that it was NOONE but God, that brought you through. Thank you for the way you bless my life DAILY.
Loved that thought..Yes, faith increases as we face more challenges in life...Each time, you grow in Him..I agree that its the choice that we take to persue Him even when the first reponse is negative..
This was so on time for me. Before opening my email to read my devotion, I had prayed and asked God to increase my faith. What do you know? "Great Faith" shows up on my screen. I am a visual person. Pardon the cliche, but I have to see it to believe it. Faith is an area of my life that is weak, but is getting stronger every day. Thank you for this wonderful word!
Just as Della said, this was on time for me too. Thank you for taking your time to write a great devotion for us ladies!
@ anonymous
Thanks for your input... sorry,I wrote to long comment.. :-) didn't mean to make an article.. just share..
Thanks ya.
Great Post!God is putting His Children through refiner. He wants to solidify the little faith you and I have. I feel what is to come will require faith like never before. It demands unshakable faith, faith that is on the unshakable foundation, which is Christ. This is why we have to go through this (I hate it but its good).
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