Great is Thy Faith

One of the most challenging stories about the Savior to understand in the gospels is this one: “And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (Matthew 15:22-28). It would seem to us reading this that He treated her harshly at first, but she took no offense and persisted in her request to the Master. She showed an incredible humility, accepting that she was not part of the “masters’ table” (house of Israel) as she continued to plead for her daughter who needed the Savior’s help. Most of us would have left, feeling insulted, when our request was not at first received and we were essentially told we didn’t belong there. But not this woman; so great was her faith that she persisted in seeking help for her daughter. And ultimately she received it, after the trial of her faith; because of her humility she found healing for her family.

            Perhaps then one of the lessons from this story for us is that as we seek for help from the Lord for our children, we must first show our humility to Him. Before obtaining healing and blessings from Him, we need to display the kind of meekness that King Benjamin discussed: “And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you” (Mosiah 2:25). As we, like this woman, go with urgency to the Lord for His help for one of our children we should recognize that we are indeed nothing compared to God. I believe that this woman had developed humility as she realized that she was alone powerless to cast out the devil from her daughter. I imagine that as the problem grew worse and worse, she came to understand more and more that she could do nothing on her own about it. As our children face difficulties that we have no power to overcome on our own, we realize just how much we depend on the grace of Jesus Christ to help us. And in those desperate moments when we can find no healing, we won’t care if the Savior humbles us or puts us in our proper place as being of the dust of the earth as long as we can get help for our child. It reminds me of President Nelson’s powerful statement: “When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him—when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life—you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.” That is exactly how this woman felt—she was consumed with worry and love and concern for her daughter and came before the Lord in total humility as she urgently sought for His healing. Surely as we can exercise that same level of humility and faith we too will find help and healing from Him for our families.