Matthew Fifteen

You cancel God's command by your rules.

This is what Jesus said to the Pharisees and religion scholars who travelled quite a distance just to criticize Jesus and what He was doing.

This begs the same question of myself, do I have rules that cancel God's command? Do I focus on what is not important and allow it to overtake what is important?

Do you?

We then come to a difficult part in the text. A Canaanite woman came to Jesus asking Him to help her daughter.

He ignored her. He gave her no answer. He told the disciples He had His hands full.

What?? Why would Jesus do that??

He knew she wouldn't give up asking. He knew she was tenacious and persistent. She was the perfect person to teach us all about how important it is to "keep on asking" like Jesus said in Matthew 7:7.

God doesn't always answer our prayers the first time we ask. We don't keep asking Him to change His mind, but to examine our motives and sometimes change our minds about what is actually important.

Jesus did answer the woman and healed her daughter. He was impressed by her faith.

How is your faith when you don't get the answer you want? Do you keep going back to Jesus or do you turn to other people and solutions to get what you want?

This woman did turn to the disciples for help, but then she came back to Jesus.

She turned to others for an answer that only Jesus could give and a solution that only Jesus could provide.

That is quite the lesson for each one of us.