Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith: be it to you even as you will. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

– Matthew 15:28

Thoughts on Today’s Verse…

When I saw this verse, what confused me most was why the Lord said her faith was great. I once searched relevant resources on the Internet, but never got a clear answer.

One day, a co-worker of the church gave me a book, in which a passage answered my question. It says, “At that time, when the Lord Jesus was in Canaan, a Canaanite woman did something … Why did the Lord Jesus praise the faith of this person? It was not because she was willing to be a dog, nor was it because she was willing to eat bread crumbs. This is all secondary. What was it that the Lord Jesus praised her for? It was that she didn’t care whether the Lord Jesus saw her as a dog, as a person, or as the devil Satan. She didn’t care what He saw her as. The most important point was that she regarded the Lord Jesus as God, and that she affirmed the Lord Jesus to be the Lord, and to be God. This is a truth and a fact that is eternally unchanging. The Lord Jesus was God, was the Lord, was the One affirmed as such in her heart, and that was enough. Irrespective of whether the Lord Jesus saved her or didn’t save her, whether He saw her as someone to eat with together at table, or as a disciple, or a follower, or whether He saw her as a lapdog or guard dog, it was all fine, she didn’t care. In any case, it was enough for her to acknowledge that the Lord Jesus was the Lord of her heart; this was her greatest faith. … The goal of people’s pursuit of the truth is to obey God. Irrespective of what God does, what form He appears in or what method He uses to speak to you, the position God has in your heart cannot change, your reverence for God cannot change, the distance between you and God cannot change and your true faith in God cannot change; in your heart, God’s essence and His position cannot change.” After reading this passage, I understood that the Canaanite woman recognized the Lord Jesus from His work and word, and clearly realized that the Lord Jesus is God Himself, the Creator. No matter how the Lord Jesus treated her, seeing her as a dog, she didn’t mind, because she had a firm belief that the Lord Jesus was God Himself she should worship. Her faith in God is not only acknowledging God but also firmly believing in her heart. God examined the innermost heart of man and saw that the Canaanite woman didn’t give up faith in God because of the attitude of the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ saw the true faith of the Canaanite woman, and thus He said her faith was great.