By Lisa Wilmore
Scripture Reading: Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 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…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…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 15:21-28).
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Where do we run for shelter? Where do hide when we need solace? What do we do when the answer will not come? Who do we call upon when fear crowds our hearts? Well, we must find ourselves at the feet of Jesus as the Canaanite woman did as see petitioned Jesus for help in our text for this message. There have been times before and certainly times now that we need to sincerely ask God to “Have mercy on us.”
My mother shared a story with my siblings and me on several occasions. She told us that many years ago she and my father were traveling from a place call “the Buckner” near Winnsboro, Louisiana. While traveling, the car hit an unforeseen pot or mud hole in the road. All of a sudden the car hydroplane and once on the ground, it would not stop spinning. She noticed that she and my father were headed for a huge tree. She said, “She screamed, ‘Lord, Have mercy’!!” As a result, the car stopped immediately, which was short of inches of the tree. As she tells this story, she becomes emotional due to her experiencing the hand of God then as well as many times after. Her advice is, “If you cannot say anything, just ask God to ‘Have mercy on me’.”
Believers in Jesus Christ, my petition to you is that each one of you pray a simple prayer, with sincerity, and ask God to“Have mercy on us.” Jesus reminds us in Matthew that our Father knows what things we have need of, before we ask him (Matthew 6:8b). However, we can never cease to pray honestly and sincerely to our LORD, the creator of everything. I believe that He will hear His children’s cry.
Please reach out to family members, friends, co-workers, etc., and share with them the Love of Jesus the Christ. He saves!
