god of ALL comfort... [part II]

I vividly remember the day. I could tell you everything about that moment; what I was wearing, how I felt, the music I heard from the frat boys room below mine. Something supernatural occurred in my heart as I overwhelmingly experienced the comfort of God in a moment of great need. I was curled up in  fetal position laying on the floor of my college dorm room, my world in pieces as I tried desperately to keep it together. I was 21 years-old, going through finals, my mom is battling brain cancer and literally dying in front of me, my 16 year-old sister was in rebellion to all rules and was living on her own, and my dysfunctional three-year relationship with Satan had just ended. In between the sobs and tears, I cried out to God and begged him to help me. Yes, my mom had cancer and my sister was on drugs and needed Jesus, but in that moment I needed help.

Matthew 15:21-28 documents an encounter of a woman who interceded for her daughter as well as herself. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. asked, let's see how she stands in the moment of challenge and controversy.

 In this passage we are told that Jesus and his disciples were traveling through gentile cities which Isaiah 23 tells us were not looked upon very favorably. A parallel account of this story, we are told that Jesus went into a house to rest from the crowds and throngs of people (Mark 7). She's obviously heard about Jesus because Luke 16 documents that word traveled from Jerusalem to Judea about the miracles, healings, and teachings he was doing! Multitudes of people had spread word about what he did for them or someone they knew.

So there she was. A gentile woman standing proxy for someone she loved probably outside the doors of the house. She was interceding for her severely demon-possessed daughter and Jesus was her only hope for healing. Loudly she cried out for Jesus to heal her daughter. He says nothing. Ouch! But we should never judge the Lord by the process, but rather the product of the process. His silence to this woman, like the silence to the psalmist who cried out for answers, like the silence we sometimes receive, reveals that he is not obligated to respond. The gentile woman, like us, had no basis on which to appeal to Jesus except to cling to his mercy. She cried out not once, not twice, but three times, with the final plea not being for her daughter, but for herself! It's at the point of complete surrender that the voice of Jesus can change our lives. And so it was in that moment, as it was in mine, that I was comforted by my God. O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire (verse 28).

My God is the God of ALL comfort! He can heal the sick, the weak, the feeble, the hurting, the lame, the dead, and the desperate. Nothing is too big for our God (Luke 1:37)! Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).