I.The Faith of The Canaanite Woman
- Do you consider yourself to have strong faith even in hardships? In Matthew 15:21-28, we read a story of a Canaanite Woman who needed Jesus' help to cast out her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus Christ kept telling her that He didn't come to help Gentiles just to test her but the woman persevered and kept asking the Lord to help her. Like we've discussed in previous posts, we, for some reason, go to God as our last resort for a solution to our problem. And, as weird as it may sound, sufferings and despairs lead us to go to Christ and His mercy. When we are problem free, we forget to talk to God, we forget to praise Him, and thank Him. We are caught up with our accomplishments and things in this world that we forget the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has done for us. But when hardships hit us, and all things possible for men have been tried, we go seeking God again for help. Then when God does not answer our prayer request in our time, we tend to give up easily on our faith, We need to be like this Canaanite Woman who showed strong faith. Even after Jesus called her a "dog" and someone not worthy of His miracles. she persevered on her requests and called the Lord for help again. Instead of getting insulted, she kept her trust on the messiah and Jesus did not dissapoint, healing her daughter that very hour.
II. Obedience to Authorities
- In Romans 13:1-7, Paul shared that God wants us to submit to our government and its leaders. The authority was given by God to punish the evil and reward the good. He wants us to abide the laws of the land that we live in. We should not disobey our leaders for any personal reasons unless it is against what God wants. Most of the time, all governments punish the wrong-doers and praise the law-abiding citizens. Paul said that if they ask for taxes that we should pay the taxes. These are only material things and what we need to focus on is building a relationship with God.
III. Proverbs for Today/8:11-13
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;
I possess knowledge and discretion.
13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech.
