She did not leave empty-handed | By: J.O. Lawal | Date: May 26, 2024 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 13, No. 4

Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to the last week of this month, the month of May 2024. My prayer is that God will daily strengthen your heart to be zealous enough to receive and enjoy His provisions for you to excel and live in rest all through the remaining days of your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we see all through the Scriptures, anyone that will receive anything from God must be serious and zealous about it. In other words, it is not enough for us to claim to have faith to receive from God; we must also add seriousness and zeal to our faith in Him. Otherwise, we may not just receive from Him what we desire.

It is true that God does a lot of things for us all without waiting for us to be serious or zealous about receiving from Him. But there are things that we cannot receive from Him, if our hearts are not serious and zealous about receiving them. What, then, are those things? I cannot say what they are in specific words. That is because, as I said before, there are many who are daily receiving all kinds of good things from God’s hands but do not take Him seriously. However, even such people will find out that there are certain things they cannot receive from God without being serious and zealous about receiving from Him.

In any case, since we cannot say what things God will freely do for us, without expecting any seriousness or zeal on our part, it will only be wise of us to be serious and zealous whenever we need anything from His hand. And as the bible says, those who seriously and zealously seek Him will never go away from Him empty-handed. (Cf. Heb 11:6)

For instance, we are told in the bible of how a Canaanite woman received deliverance for her daughter from the Lord through her faith, seriousness and zeal. As the account goes, when this woman learnt that Jesus was in her region, she first went to find out where He was. And she found out where He was, even though He did not want anyone to know that He was around. That must have taken a great measure of zeal and seriousness on her part. (Cf. Mark 7:24-26)

Then, having found out where Jesus was, this woman came to Him and began to beg Him to heal her daughter that was possessed by an unclean spirit. But Jesus did not listen to her or answer her. He just acted as though He did not hear what she was saying. Why? It was because His earthly ministry at the time was mainly to call the descendants of Abraham back to God and not to reach out to the gentiles. The gentiles would later be called after His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. (Cf. Matt 15:24)

Nevertheless, the woman did not give up. She did not hiss and turn back, thinking of Jesus as an arrogant man. Instead, she kept on following him and begging that He would heal her daughter. Then, when the Lord eventually gave her audience, He said these words to her: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” (Matt 15:26NIV) Did you see that? The Lord referred to this woman and her daughter as dogs, Israel’s dogs. He also said that they were not fit at the time to enjoy what God was giving to the nation of Israel.

Yet the woman did not get angry. Instead, she replied the Lord by saying, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” (Matt 15:27NIV) In other words, even though they were Israel’s dogs, they could still partake of some of the things the Israelites were enjoying, including healing. And because she spoke like this, the Lord responded and gave the word that set her daughter free. (Cf. Matt 15:28)

Now why was that woman able to receive from the Lord, in spite of the difficulties and insults she had received? It was because she was serious and passionate about the deliverance of her daughter. And if enduring some insults was what would make that happen, she was willing to endure them. So, she did not leave empty-handed.

In like manner, if we too are serious and zealous about receiving whatever we want from God, we will not pay attention to any obstacle on our way; we will not pay attention to people’s insults or criticism. Also, we will not consider how much time or days we have to spend praying to God in order to receive what we want from Him. Instead, we will just fix our gaze on Him and will not take it away until we have received whatever we want from Him. But are we ready to do that? Are we ready to employ seriousness and zeal every time we want to receive from God? I pray that our hearts will be made ready to do so, so that our joy can be full in every area of our lives, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a splendid week.

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