Gritty Faith

And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” 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.
Matthew 15:26-28
 
I was playing a virtual reality game not that long ago and realized how hard it is to convince your mind of two different things at the same time. I knew I was standing in my living room, but my mind was seeing a miniature golf course with cliffs and water falls. I tried to “walk off” the cliff a couple of times and even though I knew there really was no cliff it still caused a funny feeling and I had to “force” my brain to be ok with it. It was weird! 

Gritty faith can be like that at times. Where we have to go off of what we know to be true and not what we feel or the circumstances we are looking at. There are times in life where we will have to have that kind of faith to experience the victory God has for us.

In the story in Matthew 15 there is a Gentile woman who had a daughter that was demon possessed. She, like any mother, wanted her daughter to be healed, to be set free of the torment. So, she came to Jesus for that healing. She knew Jesus was able to heal her, she knew Jesus as Lord, and she believed in who He said He was. It took that solid foundation and some grit for her to see her daughter set free.

Her circumstances were not in her favor – she was a Gentile woman – unclean in the eyes of the Jews and would have been ignored by most Jewish men. Her cries for help were met with demands of silence by those closest to Jesus. Even Jesus didn’t respond in the most favorable way. But, she kept on. She kept asking. She got on her knees and cried out for help. This was one gritty mom!

This gritty faith led to a victory for her and for her daughter. Jesus has guaranteed us a victory, but He never promised it would be an easy one. Don’t let your circumstances dictate your faith or your action. Let God do that. Hold on to who you know Him to be! Never let anyone or anything steer you off track – have some grit and wait for God to work!

Pastor Matt