In Matthew 15, we have the story of the Syrophoenician woman. Here is the passage in the NASB.

   Matthew 15:21-28
   21  Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district
       of Tyre and Sidon.
   22  And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began 
       to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; 
       my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed."
   23  But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came 
       and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps 
       shouting at us."
   24  But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep
       of the house of Israel."
   25  But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord,
       help me!"
   26  And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the 
       children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
   27  But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs
       which fall from their masters' table."
   28  Then 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. 

In this story, the woman is desperate. Her daughter is demon-possessed. The Word tells us that her daughter was cruelly possessed. The demonic influence might have caused her pain or been extremely traumatic or defiling. Whatever the case, the woman means business. She is yelling to Jesus. She is shouting at Him. She is doing whatever she can to get His attention.

What was His response? He ignores her cries! Can you believe that God would ignore the cries of this woman. After a period of time, the disciples began to become irritated because of her yelling. She just kept screaming to Jesus. They ask Jesus to send her away so that the yelling will quit.

Persistence in prayer is so important. We are to pray and not give up. We should persist in prayer, wrestling with God for as long as it takes. We must do this with the same earnestness and passion of a mother pleading for her daughter's life!

The disciples are not broken at her plight. I have seen this in the Christian world so often. We are irritated that those who need ministry are not of the right "sort." They do not have our bathing habits, our couth, our decorum. They use corse or even foul language. They have big sin problems. If Christians are not careful, we can begin to think we are better than they are. We can forget what we once were and what we would be like apart from God's restraining grace.

At this point, Jesus tells the woman that He cannot help her because He was sent to the house of Israel. She was not a Jew. He then tells her that people do not give the food that should go to their children to the dogs. He compares her to a dog!

How does this broken woman respond to be called a dog by the One she came to for help? She says, "Jesus, I don't need the children's food. That would be asking too much. You are so powerful that I only need a crumb!" She begs for the crumbs, the scraps, the left-overs.

This Jesus says that she has great faith! This woman understood His power! She realized that He was so big and so amazing that just a moment of His attention and her child would be made right.

She only needed a crumb, not because the problem was so small, but because God was so mighty!

We only need a glimpse of His glory to set our lives right. We only need a little bit of Who He is to permeate our being and flood our understanding. We only need a small taste of Him to heal all our troubles and solve our problems. We just need a bit of His glory!

Father,

Amen.