“Then Jesus answered her, ‘Oh woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.”
– Matthew 15:28
This story of a Canaanite woman that just comes to Jesus crying out for mercy specifically on behalf of her daughter who is severely oppressed by a demon, Matthew 15:22 says, “And Jesus at first did not answer her and began speaking with her.” There’s so much we could talk about in this passage, but she presses and she perseveres and Jesus responds, “Oh woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.”
And as we read through Matthew, there’s such an emphasis on faith, on the faith of even supposedly unlikely people, a Canaanite woman here, who the disciples are actually at one point saying, “Send her away for she’s crying out after us.”
Matthew 15:28 Reminds Us to Be Faithful
Father, help us to persevere in prayer. May we call out to you in faith day and night.
And she presses in because why? Because she knows who Jesus is. She knows who Jesus is and what Jesus is able to do. And nothing is stopping her from coming to him, pleading before him for what she needs specifically for what her daughter needs on behalf of someone else.
What a picture of intercession in faith, of praying in faith of pressing in, persevering with faith. Why? Because you know who Jesus is and you know what Jesus is able to do. And when you know these things, then it affects the way you pray. It affects the way you approach Jesus. Like just picture the temptation you and I have to prayerlessness, to not pray as we ought and then read the story and realize, like prayer is driven by faith. When we know who Jesus is and what Jesus is able to do, we will persevere in prayer.
Matthew 15:28 Reminds Us to Pray in Faith
We will pray in faith, we’ll pray in faith for things in our own lives. And we’ll pray in faith on behalf of others’ lives, which means if we’re not praying, if we’re not pressing in and persevering in petition and intercession like this, then it’s likely because there is a lack of faith in who Jesus is and what Jesus is able to do.
So, Jesus, we press in right now in faith, we trust in who you are. You are the Lord of all. You are the King of Kings. And You are the sovereign ruler of the universe. In you, all things hold together. Apart from you, we can do nothing. And you are a giver of mercy. You are generous and kind and compassionate and forgiving and loving. So we come to you based on who you are and what you are able to do. You have all authority in heaven and on earth, you have all power.
You have not just all power, but all wisdom. And You know, what is best. We come to you with needs and desires in our own lives, needs and desires on behalf of others’ lives, as we think about people, we pray for continually. God, I’m just driven to pray in a fresh way right now for my son in another country who I long to go get. Our family longs to go get, we’re pleading before you every day, please make a way for us to go and bring him into our home.
This Verse Reminds Us to Trust God
God, please, please, please, Jesus, please I trust in who you are, what you’re able to do. God, I just lift up prayers of faith, not just on his behalf, but on behalf of others who are pleading before you day and night for different things, for different needs, God we praise you, we trust your power. We trust your wisdom and your love. We believe before you. In faith, we pray that it would be done as we desire to the extent of which that is good according to your wisdom.
When we trust, we trust your wisdom. We pray that you would teach us to pray with faith. You would help us to pray with faith. You’d forgive us for our prayerlessness that shows a lack of faith so many times. And God we pray, that you would be glorified in our asking and our persevering in pressing in, in intercession and petitioning that it might be said of us, “Great is your faith. Be it done as you desire.” In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
