August 14, 2025 • 19 mins
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When God seems silent, it’s easy to give up. But the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 shows us what persistent prayer really looks like. In this episode, I share her story and what it teaches us about pressing in, refusing to be offended, and trusting that Jesus hears and cares—even when the answer seems far away.
I've released my new book!!! Get your copy here: Seek First: 31 Quiet Moments With Jesus
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome back to Grace For my Home.
I'm Audrey McCracken and I'm soglad to be back with you again
this week.
I hope that you're doing well.
We are.
We're doing great.
School is about to start back.
We have about one week beforeour kids are back in school, and
so we're trying to squeeze thelast little bit of fun out of
(00:22):
summer.
So we're looking forward to thenew year, the new school year.
Some other news this week Ireleased my second book.
It's called Seek First 31 QuietMoments with Jesus, and I'm
really excited about it.
I wrote this book as a help foryou during your devotional time.
(00:45):
You know, when my children wereyoung, when they were little,
we would go to the park and theyalways want to go on the swings
.
But they were so short thatwhen they sat in the seat on the
swing their feet wouldn't touchthe ground, they couldn't push
off, they couldn't get anytraction, and so I had three.
So of course one would be onthe swing and one would want to
be over on the monkey bars, andthe other wants to be on the
(01:07):
slide.
So the one on the swing.
If I could just give him a goodpush, you know, he would build
up the momentum, swinging backand forth and he could keep it
going, but he just needed a push.
And that's kind of how it is.
That's how I see thesedevotionals.
Sometimes we sit down with ourBible and we have good
intentions, but it's just hardto get started and you know, if
(01:30):
I can help you, if I can justgive you a push, you know
something to think about, maybea scripture.
You know, maybe you startpraying my prayer, but as you
start going, you get your ownmomentum and then you pray your
own prayers, but it got youstarted.
You get your own momentum andthen you pray your own prayers,
but it got you started.
So that's the purpose behindthese two books is, first of all
, to give you that little pushand, second of all, to help you
(01:52):
connect with Jesus, because he'swhere the life is.
You know he is our life, he isthe one that we want to talk to,
and so I hope that this bookand my other book will be a
blessing to you.
Check it out on Amazon I'llleave the link in the show notes
and if you are blessed by it,if you enjoy it, I would so
(02:13):
appreciate you sharing it with afriend sharing it on social
media, leaving me a review.
All of those things help peoplefind this book, which hopefully
will be an encouragement and ablessing to them, and it will be
a blessing to me also.
So check that out.
It's called Seek First 31 QuietMoments with Jesus, and let me
(02:34):
know how you like it.
This past Saturday we had ourCovered in Prayer event for moms
at Awaken Coffee Bar and I willtell you, we had such a good
time.
It was such a blessing.
I had three listeners from thepodcast who came.
They drove from North Carolinaand came and participated in our
(02:57):
Covered in Prayer event and itwas so nice to have them.
And then we had several fromseveral locals that were in the
area who came, and I believethat the Lord was there and
answered and heard and answeredour prayers.
I mean, you just felt thepresence of the Lord.
It was just so nice to be ableto encourage each other to pray
(03:19):
for each other, and I'm verythankful.
I'm thankful for all of thosewho helped and planned and it
was successful and it was sosuccessful.
And we'm very thankful.
I'm thankful for all of thosewho helped and planned and I
just it was successful, and itwas so successful and we enjoyed
it so much that I think we'regoing to try and do it again.
I think we're going to try andput it on a rotation and so that
we can continue to grow and andminister to each other and just
(03:42):
see what God wants to do.
It was that successful.
So thank you to all who prayedand who participated.
It was so nice seeing you andhaving you there and if you
couldn't make it, I would loveto have you at the next one and
I'll keep you informed.
So today I'm going to sharewith you the message that I
shared Saturday night, and Ihope that it will be a blessing
(04:04):
to you.
And the message that I sharedwas about the access that we
have to Jesus in prayer.
So many miracles started with amom or a dad bringing their
child to Jesus for prayer, andyou know, in John 4, there is a
father in Capernaum who brought,who came to Jesus and asked him
(04:25):
to please touch his son, andJesus did.
In Luke 7, Jesus raised awidow's son from the dead.
And in Matthew 9, one of theleaders of the synagogue, Jairus
.
He came to Jesus and asked thatJesus come and pray for his
(04:46):
daughter because she was sick.
She actually died before he gotthere.
He prayed for her and she satup.
And so there's so many storiesin the Bible.
You know the story in Matthew17, where there is a boy who
keeps falling into the fire.
Some people speculate that thatboy had epilepsy or he had a
(05:08):
condition, that he had seizuresand the father asked him.
He said, Jesus, if you can healmy son?
And Jesus said, if you know,I'm giving you my modern
paraphrase if.
And the father says, Lord, I dobelieve, help my unbelief.
And that is such a great prayerfor us as mothers, to pray for
(05:29):
our children.
You know, sometimes there arethings that we want to believe
God for, but it just seems likesuch a huge ask.
You know, Lord, I need you todo this for me, I need you to do
this for my son or for mydaughter.
And you know, and it's like wego to the Lord and it's Lord, I
need you to do this.
I believe, Lord, help myunbelief.
(05:51):
And that's a prayer that Jesusanswers.
But one of my favorite storiesin the Bible of a mom who brings
her child to Jesus is the storyof the Seraphim woman, and it's
mentioned twice in the Bible.
Matthew recorded it in Matthew15.
And Luke recorded it in chapterseven of his gospel.
(06:15):
But this woman come to Jesusand she was different from all
the other moms and dads and thething that made her different
was that she was not of theJewish race, she was not a
covenant child of God.
At this time, only the Jewswere in covenant with God and
Jesus had been sent as theMessiah, the King of the Jews.
(06:39):
And he was not sent.
At that time we didn't know,and he hadn't announced, hadn't
been made known that Jesus wasgoing to open up the good news,
the covenant, not just to theJewish people but to all people.
And so this woman comes toJesus with no promise, no
promise that he is going to help, and he has no, I guess you'd
(07:04):
say, requirement to help,because he knows that the
covenant, at this time thecovenant was for the Jewish
people.
But let's read this story.
It's a really good story andit's kind of short, so let's
read it.
It's in Matthew 15, 21 through28.
And I'm going to read out ofthe NIV version and this is how
(07:25):
it reads, and this is what itsays, and this is how it reads,
and this is what it says Leavingthat place, Jesus withdrew to
the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Canaanite woman from thatvicinity came to him crying out
Lord, son of David, have mercyon me.
My daughter is demon possessedand suffering terribly.
Jesus did not answer her a word.
(07:48):
So his disciples came to himand urged him Send her away, for
she keeps crying out after us.
He answered I was sent only tothe lost sheep of Israel.
The woman came and knelt beforehim.
Lord, help me, she said.
He replied it is not right totake the children's bread and
toss it to the dogs.
(08:09):
Yes, it is Lord, she said.
So here's a woman who knowsthat she is outside of the
(08:30):
covenant of Israel.
She even calls him son of David.
She is a Canaanite woman.
These were not his people, butshe comes to him and asks for
mercy.
Lord, heal my daughter.
She is suffering terribly.
And you know what?
Jesus did not answer her a word.
(08:51):
Have you ever felt like that?
I'm praying, but Jesus, he'snot answering a word.
Jesus was silent and from anoutside observer it would seem
that he was uninterested ordidn't care, because he didn't
even answer her.
And then his disciples.
(09:13):
She didn't get any pity fromthem.
They came to Jesus and saidplease send her away.
You know she keeps crying outafter us.
They were just annoyed.
You know they didn't have anycompassion in their heart for
her or any desire to help her.
They just wanted Jesus to sendher away.
And so, after they begged him,please send her away.
(09:34):
He does speak to her, he answersher and he says I was sent only
to the lost sheep of Israel, sohe's not giving her much hope.
You know he's instead ofanswering her prayer.
He's basically rejecting her.
He's telling her you're notpart of my covenant.
Answering her prayer.
He's basically rejecting her.
He's telling her you're notpart of my covenant, I'm not
sent to you.
But she does not let thatdiscourage her.
(09:55):
She doesn't let his silencestop her.
She presses past the silenceand then she doesn't even let
what seems to be a rejection ora no stop her.
She presses past those placesuntil she keeps knocking on the
door.
She presses past thosehindrances and she said Lord,
(10:20):
help me, Lord, help me.
She calls him Lord, she bowsbefore him.
She's recognizing that he isthe master and then he says it's
not right to take thechildren's bread and toss it to
the dogs, Because anybody whowas outside of the covenant the
Jews regarded as a dog.
They were unclean, and so he'sbasically calling this woman a
(10:42):
dog.
He has, you know, he's gonefrom ignoring her and rejecting
her to offending her, to callingher a dog, and she does not get
offended.
She refuses to get offended andshe says yes, Lord, but even
the dogs eat the crumbs thatfall from the master's table.
(11:04):
She recognizes him as not justLord or King of the Jews, but
King of all the earth.
She, she believes.
I believe in her heart.
She believed if I can just getto him, I know he will help me.
You know, I don't have anyreason to believe that he would
help me, I just know he willhelp me and her faith.
(11:26):
Jesus commends her faith.
He said great is your faith.
And her faith, her trust in God, her refusal to be denied an
audience with him and a refusalto walk away without the answer
to her prayer.
It pays off in the end and thescripture reads that Jesus said
(11:48):
woman, you have great faith,your request is granted and her
daughter was healed at thatmoment.
And I think we can learn a lotfrom this woman.
We have a covenant with God.
We are his children.
We believe the covenant hasbeen opened up to us and we are
his children now.
(12:08):
And so we go to him with arequest and we knock his
children now.
And so we go to him with arequest and we knock on his door
.
We have more hope to believethan she did, but I believe he
was testing her faith.
I believe he had a desire fromthe very beginning to answer her
request.
But sometimes our faith isstretched by his silence and
(12:31):
sometimes our faith is stretchedby the apparent denial of our
request.
And sometimes our faith istested when things happen and it
feels like the Lord is not justignoring us but he's unkind.
You know, sometimes we don'tunderstand the Lord's way.
(12:56):
Sometimes things happen.
It's like Lord, why, Lord?
How could you let this happen,Lord?
Why, why is this happening tomy family?
Why has this happened to mychild?
And you know I don't understandall those questions.
I can't answer all thosequestions.
I can't answer all thosequestions.
But I can tell you that when wepress into Jesus, he will give
(13:17):
us what we need.
You know, he is kind, even whenit seems like he's unkind.
He cares about us, even when itfeels like he's cold.
But we have to keep pressing in, we have to refuse to be denied
, we have to refuse to beoffended at Him, and he will
reward our faith, the faith thatwe didn't give up on Him.
(13:40):
Now, it doesn't necessarilymean he's going to answer our
prayers the way we want themanswered.
It doesn't necessarily meanhe's going to do exactly what
we've asked him to do, but Ibelieve that our faith will not
be disappointed, that he willgive us what we need, how we
need it, when we need it, and itwill bring us in closer
(14:02):
relationship with him.
She had a breakthrough.
She had a, but she had abreakthrough in faith, and I
believe that through this womanhe is showing us don't stop
coming, Don't stop pressing in.
You keep asking.
(14:23):
Sometimes the answer isn't justfor you, but it's for those who
are watching.
See, I know those disciples wentaway that day scratching their
heads.
You know, Jesus, he doesn't dothings the way we think he's
going to do things.
He loves to jump out of ourboxes.
(14:43):
You know he loves to show aside of Him that we've never
seen before, Just when we thinkwe've got Him figured out.
He loves to do somethingdifferent.
And I believe that day he didsomething different, right in
the sight of all those discipleswho ignored her and didn't
think she was worth evenlistening to.
Lord Jesus, just send her away.
(15:06):
She's so annoying.
Well, you know what.
She refused to be offended atthem or at Jesus, and I'm so
thankful that this encounter waswritten down for us.
We have more of a reason tobelieve that he will answer us
than she did.
But she refused to give up.
And guys come to Jesus with thatkind of tenacity, with that
(15:28):
kind of prayer, with that kindof hope that I will not be
denied, that he will hear myprayer and that he cares.
He cares about my daughter, hecares about my son, he cares
about my circumstances more thanI do, and even when it seems
(15:50):
like he's distant, even when itfeels like he's not paying
attention, or even when hedoesn't seem kind, that he has
my best interest in mind, hecares for me.
And the only way to get to thatpoint where we have that
breakthrough is to keep askingand to keep praying.
Jesus told a parable of a womanwho went before an unjust judge
and kept asking for justiceagainst her adversary.
(16:12):
And the judge actually says.
Of course it's a parable, butin his mind he reasons you know,
I don't care about justice, butthis woman's wearing me out,
let's give her what she wants,so she'll leave me alone.
And Jesus, in saying that, hemade the comparison.
If this judge, who is not justwill give this woman, will
(16:34):
answer this woman's requestbecause of her many requests,
then surely God, our Father, whois just, will hear our cries
and answer us.
And that's what this woman did.
She kept coming, she keptcoming, she pressed through.
Even when it was easy to beoffended at Jesus, she chose to
(16:55):
believe that his kindness wouldwin out in the end.
And I just want to encourage youthis week pray, pray.
Your children need your prayers.
You need to see breakthrough.
You need to see that Jesus isanswering your prayers.
But he cannot answer prayers.
You don't pray, right.
So let's keep praying, let'skeep knocking on his door, let's
(17:18):
keep bringing before him thosethat we love and we care about
and trust that he has a goodplan for them.
I hope that this message hasbeen encouraging to you,
especially if you've beenpraying and you just feel like
giving up.
Don't give up.
Don't give up, Keep praying.
God is listening and I would beso honored if you would go and
(17:39):
purchase my book on Amazon SeekFirst, 31 Quiet Moments with
Jesus by Audrey McCracken.
I'll put the link in the shownotes and my prayer is that it
would bring fresh life into yourquiet times.
And let me know how you like it.
Send me a text, an email,however you communicate a
private message throughInstagram or Facebook.
(18:01):
I would so love to hear fromyou and, if you love it, leave
me a review.
Leave me a five-star Amazonreview and until next time, God
bless, have a great week.
Hello and welcome back to Grace For my Home.
I'm Audrey McCracken and I'm soglad to be back with you again
this week.
I hope that you're doing well.
We are.
We're doing great.
School is about to start back.
We have about one week beforeour kids are back in school, and
so we're trying to squeeze thelast little bit of fun out of
(00:22):
summer.
So we're looking forward to thenew year, the new school year.
Some other news this week Ireleased my second book.
It's called Seek First 31 QuietMoments with Jesus, and I'm
really excited about it.
I wrote this book as a help foryou during your devotional time.
(00:45):
You know, when my children wereyoung, when they were little,
we would go to the park and theyalways want to go on the swings
.
But they were so short thatwhen they sat in the seat on the
swing their feet wouldn't touchthe ground, they couldn't push
off, they couldn't get anytraction, and so I had three.
So of course one would be onthe swing and one would want to
be over on the monkey bars, andthe other wants to be on the
(01:07):
slide.
So the one on the swing.
If I could just give him a goodpush, you know, he would build
up the momentum, swinging backand forth and he could keep it
going, but he just needed a push.
And that's kind of how it is.
That's how I see thesedevotionals.
Sometimes we sit down with ourBible and we have good
intentions, but it's just hardto get started and you know, if
(01:30):
I can help you, if I can justgive you a push, you know
something to think about, maybea scripture.
You know, maybe you startpraying my prayer, but as you
start going, you get your ownmomentum and then you pray your
own prayers, but it got youstarted.
You get your own momentum andthen you pray your own prayers,
but it got you started.
So that's the purpose behindthese two books is, first of all
, to give you that little pushand, second of all, to help you
(01:52):
connect with Jesus, because he'swhere the life is.
You know he is our life, he isthe one that we want to talk to,
and so I hope that this bookand my other book will be a
blessing to you.
Check it out on Amazon I'llleave the link in the show notes
and if you are blessed by it,if you enjoy it, I would so
(02:13):
appreciate you sharing it with afriend sharing it on social
media, leaving me a review.
All of those things help peoplefind this book, which hopefully
will be an encouragement and ablessing to them, and it will be
a blessing to me also.
So check that out.
It's called Seek First 31 QuietMoments with Jesus, and let me
(02:34):
know how you like it.
This past Saturday we had ourCovered in Prayer event for moms
at Awaken Coffee Bar and I willtell you, we had such a good
time.
It was such a blessing.
I had three listeners from thepodcast who came.
They drove from North Carolinaand came and participated in our
(02:57):
Covered in Prayer event and itwas so nice to have them.
And then we had several fromseveral locals that were in the
area who came, and I believethat the Lord was there and
answered and heard and answeredour prayers.
I mean, you just felt thepresence of the Lord.
It was just so nice to be ableto encourage each other to pray
(03:19):
for each other, and I'm verythankful.
I'm thankful for all of thosewho helped and planned and it
was successful and it was sosuccessful.
And we'm very thankful.
I'm thankful for all of thosewho helped and planned and I
just it was successful, and itwas so successful and we enjoyed
it so much that I think we'regoing to try and do it again.
I think we're going to try andput it on a rotation and so that
we can continue to grow and andminister to each other and just
(03:42):
see what God wants to do.
It was that successful.
So thank you to all who prayedand who participated.
It was so nice seeing you andhaving you there and if you
couldn't make it, I would loveto have you at the next one and
I'll keep you informed.
So today I'm going to sharewith you the message that I
shared Saturday night, and Ihope that it will be a blessing
(04:04):
to you.
And the message that I sharedwas about the access that we
have to Jesus in prayer.
So many miracles started with amom or a dad bringing their
child to Jesus for prayer, andyou know, in John 4, there is a
father in Capernaum who brought,who came to Jesus and asked him
(04:25):
to please touch his son, andJesus did.
In Luke 7, Jesus raised awidow's son from the dead.
And in Matthew 9, one of theleaders of the synagogue, Jairus
.
He came to Jesus and asked thatJesus come and pray for his
(04:46):
daughter because she was sick.
She actually died before he gotthere.
He prayed for her and she satup.
And so there's so many storiesin the Bible.
You know the story in Matthew17, where there is a boy who
keeps falling into the fire.
Some people speculate that thatboy had epilepsy or he had a
(05:08):
condition, that he had seizuresand the father asked him.
He said, Jesus, if you can healmy son?
And Jesus said, if you know,I'm giving you my modern
paraphrase if.
And the father says, Lord, I dobelieve, help my unbelief.
And that is such a great prayerfor us as mothers, to pray for
(05:29):
our children.
You know, sometimes there arethings that we want to believe
God for, but it just seems likesuch a huge ask.
You know, Lord, I need you todo this for me, I need you to do
this for my son or for mydaughter.
And you know, and it's like wego to the Lord and it's Lord, I
need you to do this.
I believe, Lord, help myunbelief.
(05:51):
And that's a prayer that Jesusanswers.
But one of my favorite storiesin the Bible of a mom who brings
her child to Jesus is the storyof the Seraphim woman, and it's
mentioned twice in the Bible.
Matthew recorded it in Matthew15.
And Luke recorded it in chapterseven of his gospel.
(06:15):
But this woman come to Jesusand she was different from all
the other moms and dads and thething that made her different
was that she was not of theJewish race, she was not a
covenant child of God.
At this time, only the Jewswere in covenant with God and
Jesus had been sent as theMessiah, the King of the Jews.
(06:39):
And he was not sent.
At that time we didn't know,and he hadn't announced, hadn't
been made known that Jesus wasgoing to open up the good news,
the covenant, not just to theJewish people but to all people.
And so this woman comes toJesus with no promise, no
promise that he is going to help, and he has no, I guess you'd
(07:04):
say, requirement to help,because he knows that the
covenant, at this time thecovenant was for the Jewish
people.
But let's read this story.
It's a really good story andit's kind of short, so let's
read it.
It's in Matthew 15, 21 through28.
And I'm going to read out ofthe NIV version and this is how
(07:25):
it reads, and this is what itsays, and this is how it reads,
and this is what it says Leavingthat place, Jesus withdrew to
the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Canaanite woman from thatvicinity came to him crying out
Lord, son of David, have mercyon me.
My daughter is demon possessedand suffering terribly.
Jesus did not answer her a word.
(07:48):
So his disciples came to himand urged him Send her away, for
she keeps crying out after us.
He answered I was sent only tothe lost sheep of Israel.
The woman came and knelt beforehim.
Lord, help me, she said.
He replied it is not right totake the children's bread and
toss it to the dogs.
(08:09):
Yes, it is Lord, she said.
So here's a woman who knowsthat she is outside of the
(08:30):
covenant of Israel.
She even calls him son of David.
She is a Canaanite woman.
These were not his people, butshe comes to him and asks for
mercy.
Lord, heal my daughter.
She is suffering terribly.
And you know what?
Jesus did not answer her a word.
(08:51):
Have you ever felt like that?
I'm praying, but Jesus, he'snot answering a word.
Jesus was silent and from anoutside observer it would seem
that he was uninterested ordidn't care, because he didn't
even answer her.
And then his disciples.
(09:13):
She didn't get any pity fromthem.
They came to Jesus and saidplease send her away.
You know she keeps crying outafter us.
They were just annoyed.
You know they didn't have anycompassion in their heart for
her or any desire to help her.
They just wanted Jesus to sendher away.
And so, after they begged him,please send her away.
(09:34):
He does speak to her, he answersher and he says I was sent only
to the lost sheep of Israel, sohe's not giving her much hope.
You know he's instead ofanswering her prayer.
He's basically rejecting her.
He's telling her you're notpart of my covenant.
Answering her prayer.
He's basically rejecting her.
He's telling her you're notpart of my covenant, I'm not
sent to you.
But she does not let thatdiscourage her.
(09:55):
She doesn't let his silencestop her.
She presses past the silenceand then she doesn't even let
what seems to be a rejection ora no stop her.
She presses past those placesuntil she keeps knocking on the
door.
She presses past thosehindrances and she said Lord,
(10:20):
help me, Lord, help me.
She calls him Lord, she bowsbefore him.
She's recognizing that he isthe master and then he says it's
not right to take thechildren's bread and toss it to
the dogs, Because anybody whowas outside of the covenant the
Jews regarded as a dog.
They were unclean, and so he'sbasically calling this woman a
(10:42):
dog.
He has, you know, he's gonefrom ignoring her and rejecting
her to offending her, to callingher a dog, and she does not get
offended.
She refuses to get offended andshe says yes, Lord, but even
the dogs eat the crumbs thatfall from the master's table.
(11:04):
She recognizes him as not justLord or King of the Jews, but
King of all the earth.
She, she believes.
I believe in her heart.
She believed if I can just getto him, I know he will help me.
You know, I don't have anyreason to believe that he would
help me, I just know he willhelp me and her faith.
(11:26):
Jesus commends her faith.
He said great is your faith.
And her faith, her trust in God, her refusal to be denied an
audience with him and a refusalto walk away without the answer
to her prayer.
It pays off in the end and thescripture reads that Jesus said
(11:48):
woman, you have great faith,your request is granted and her
daughter was healed at thatmoment.
And I think we can learn a lotfrom this woman.
We have a covenant with God.
We are his children.
We believe the covenant hasbeen opened up to us and we are
his children now.
(12:08):
And so we go to him with arequest and we knock his
children now.
And so we go to him with arequest and we knock on his door
.
We have more hope to believethan she did, but I believe he
was testing her faith.
I believe he had a desire fromthe very beginning to answer her
request.
But sometimes our faith isstretched by his silence and
(12:31):
sometimes our faith is stretchedby the apparent denial of our
request.
And sometimes our faith istested when things happen and it
feels like the Lord is not justignoring us but he's unkind.
You know, sometimes we don'tunderstand the Lord's way.
(12:56):
Sometimes things happen.
It's like Lord, why, Lord?
How could you let this happen,Lord?
Why, why is this happening tomy family?
Why has this happened to mychild?
And you know I don't understandall those questions.
I can't answer all thosequestions.
I can't answer all thosequestions.
But I can tell you that when wepress into Jesus, he will give
(13:17):
us what we need.
You know, he is kind, even whenit seems like he's unkind.
He cares about us, even when itfeels like he's cold.
But we have to keep pressing in, we have to refuse to be denied
, we have to refuse to beoffended at Him, and he will
reward our faith, the faith thatwe didn't give up on Him.
(13:40):
Now, it doesn't necessarilymean he's going to answer our
prayers the way we want themanswered.
It doesn't necessarily meanhe's going to do exactly what
we've asked him to do, but Ibelieve that our faith will not
be disappointed, that he willgive us what we need, how we
need it, when we need it, and itwill bring us in closer
(14:02):
relationship with him.
She had a breakthrough.
She had a, but she had abreakthrough in faith, and I
believe that through this womanhe is showing us don't stop
coming, Don't stop pressing in.
You keep asking.
(14:23):
Sometimes the answer isn't justfor you, but it's for those who
are watching.
See, I know those disciples wentaway that day scratching their
heads.
You know, Jesus, he doesn't dothings the way we think he's
going to do things.
He loves to jump out of ourboxes.
(14:43):
You know he loves to show aside of Him that we've never
seen before, Just when we thinkwe've got Him figured out.
He loves to do somethingdifferent.
And I believe that day he didsomething different, right in
the sight of all those discipleswho ignored her and didn't
think she was worth evenlistening to.
Lord Jesus, just send her away.
(15:06):
She's so annoying.
Well, you know what.
She refused to be offended atthem or at Jesus, and I'm so
thankful that this encounter waswritten down for us.
We have more of a reason tobelieve that he will answer us
than she did.
But she refused to give up.
And guys come to Jesus with thatkind of tenacity, with that
(15:28):
kind of prayer, with that kindof hope that I will not be
denied, that he will hear myprayer and that he cares.
He cares about my daughter, hecares about my son, he cares
about my circumstances more thanI do, and even when it seems
(15:50):
like he's distant, even when itfeels like he's not paying
attention, or even when hedoesn't seem kind, that he has
my best interest in mind, hecares for me.
And the only way to get to thatpoint where we have that
breakthrough is to keep askingand to keep praying.
Jesus told a parable of a womanwho went before an unjust judge
and kept asking for justiceagainst her adversary.
(16:12):
And the judge actually says.
Of course it's a parable, butin his mind he reasons you know,
I don't care about justice, butthis woman's wearing me out,
let's give her what she wants,so she'll leave me alone.
And Jesus, in saying that, hemade the comparison.
If this judge, who is not justwill give this woman, will
(16:34):
answer this woman's requestbecause of her many requests,
then surely God, our Father, whois just, will hear our cries
and answer us.
And that's what this woman did.
She kept coming, she keptcoming, she pressed through.
Even when it was easy to beoffended at Jesus, she chose to
(16:55):
believe that his kindness wouldwin out in the end.
And I just want to encourage youthis week pray, pray.
Your children need your prayers.
You need to see breakthrough.
You need to see that Jesus isanswering your prayers.
But he cannot answer prayers.
You don't pray, right.
So let's keep praying, let'skeep knocking on his door, let's
(17:18):
keep bringing before him thosethat we love and we care about
and trust that he has a goodplan for them.
I hope that this message hasbeen encouraging to you,
especially if you've beenpraying and you just feel like
giving up.
Don't give up.
Don't give up, Keep praying.
God is listening and I would beso honored if you would go and
(17:39):
purchase my book on Amazon SeekFirst, 31 Quiet Moments with
Jesus by Audrey McCracken.
I'll put the link in the shownotes and my prayer is that it
would bring fresh life into yourquiet times.
And let me know how you like it.
Send me a text, an email,however you communicate a
private message throughInstagram or Facebook.
(18:01):
I would so love to hear fromyou and, if you love it, leave
me a review.
Leave me a five-star Amazonreview and until next time, God
bless, have a great week.
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