A Mother’s Persistent Prayer: Lessons from the Syrophoenician Woman (Praying for Your Child Series - Part 1)

In today’s episode, we look at the Syrophoenician woman and what her bold, humble faith teaches us as praying mothers. If you’ve been interceding for your child, this is encouragement to keep coming to Jesus.

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Audrey 1:13

Hello, friend. Welcome back to Grace from My Home. I'm Audrey McCracken, and it is such a blessing to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. We are doing great. I have two of my children home with me today from school. They were off of school yesterday and today. And so this is about the tenth time, maybe 11th time, that I have tried to record this podcast. But people keep coming in and needing me or yelling or slamming doors. So I'm going to see if I can get through this one. So if you hear things in the background, if you hear the dog barking or you hear the kids or things going on, just please ignore it. Please bear with me. I'm going to try and get this message to you today because it's really burning on my heart and I think it's really good. You know, I have I'm going through a season, and I think I'm going to for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to do a series on prayer and specifically praying for our children. Now, if you do not have children, these principles apply to prayer in general. But I'm going to speak specifically to moms praying for our children. Because this has really been on my heart lately. You know, we will pray for our children when we won't pray for ourselves. You know, God can get our attention through our children faster than than he can anybody else. At least that's been true in my life. You know, I I love my children with all my heart. And my greatest desire for them is, yes, I want them to live a long and happy life, a good life. But most of all, I want them to know and love Jesus. That is my number one goal, my number one desire for them is to know and love the Lord. And I I can't do that for them. You know, everybody has to make their own choice, their own decision, um how they're going to live, if they're going to believe, if they're going to serve Jesus. And, you know, we can do everything we can. We can point them to the Lord, we can tell them about God, we can pray for them. We can live a life before them that honors and serves God. And hopefully they see it, they catch it, but they ultimately they have to come to that place where they choose, where they choose to walk with Jesus. But as their mom, I'm going to do everything I can to get them to that place. And as they grow older and they leave our home, we have less influence, like direct influence on them. You know, our time with them one-on-one in our home, you know, it comes to an end. I told you a couple of weeks ago that my youngest son Caleb got his driver's license. And it seems like once they get their driver's license, there something changes. They are no longer dependent on us for much. You know, they may still want some some cash, they may still want some money, but they got if once they have their driver's license and they can, you know, cut kind of come and go like they want, then it our our relationship takes on a different dynamic. And, you know, I have three boys who are two are in high school, one's in college, but they're going out into the world. They all have jobs now and working on the weekends, and you know, they're going to places that I can't go. And they are being around, they're around people that I can't control. And so I just have to trust God. You know, I just have to trust God. And so though I'm not directly orchestrating, you know, what they do with their day and and where they go and who they are around, I do have a unique tool in my tool belt. And that tool is prayer. You know, those children, as much as I love them, they don't they don't belong to me. Yes, they're my children, but they are a gift from God, and they belong to God. And I have given my children to the Lord, but at the same time, I keep bringing my children before the Lord because that's my heart's desire is that God would touch their hearts. Now they don't belong to me, they belong to him, but I keep placing them at his feet. And so I want to share with you today about this story about the Seraphonician woman. I love her. I really do. I mean, I I feel like we're kindred spirit, I

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Audrey 5:47

do. And the two gospels record her conversation with Jesus. Matthew chapter 15, verses 21 through 28, and also Mark chapter 7, verses 24 through 30. And I tell you that because I'm not gonna be able to, for time's sake, I'm not gonna read both of them to you. But if you want to read those later, I want to give you those verses. And it's it's very short, very short conversation. But I love the way each of them tells a side that the other doesn't. You know, it's kind of like when you have two people who see the same thing, but they they see it in a different light. One person picks up on this and another person may pick up on something else that to them was important. And so I'm gonna read Matthew's version. I'm gonna read Matthew 15, starting in verses twenty one starting in verse twenty one. Jesus went away from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon, and a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is cruelly demon possessed. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and implored him, saying, Send her away because she keeps shouting at us. But he answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and began to bow down before him, saying, Lord help me. And he answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she said, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. And Jesus said to her, O woman, your faith is great, it shall be done for you as you wish, and her daughter was healed at once. And as we read this, in the gospel of Mark, it the first verse, and I know I said I wasn't going to read it, but I am going to read the first verse. It says, Jesus got up and he went away from there to the region of Tyre, and when he entered a house, he wanted no one to know of it, yet he could not escape notice. So it it's almost like Jesus is trying to take a break. He's trying to get away. He goes to this region where there it's not a city of the Jews, and he is he still can't get away. You know, this this is not this is not the Jewish people. He's in another area, but people are still coming to him. And so this woman, she hears Jesus is in her town, so she goes and she implores him, please touch my daughter. Please heal her. She is being tormented by the enemy. And Jesus doesn't say a word. He's quiet. But but that doesn't stop her. She keeps coming, she keeps asking, she keeps knocking, so much so that his disciples come and say, Lord, please send her away. You know, I imagine that I imagine them saying that in this frustration. You know, it's almost like they're annoyed by this woman. Why don't you just leave us alone? But she is not leaving until she gets what she came for. So she comes to Jesus and finally after after the disciples say, Lord, please send her away. He communicates with her, he speaks to her. But it's not the response she's looking for. Because he says, I wasn't sent to you. I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She was not of the covenant, she was not of Israel. But she didn't she did not let that deter her still. She kept asking, Lord, have mercy on me, help me. And then finally, the next thing he says seems even harsher than the first. He says, It's not right for me to take what belongs to the children and throw it to the dogs. You see, the Gentiles were not a part of the covenant, and they were considered by the Jews as dogs. They were they were not respected. They were considered dogs, they were called dogs. So Jesus basically calls her a dog. And she's she's still not deterred. She's still not offended. She says, Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. She acknowledges him as the master, as her master, as Lord of all. And he says, Great is your faith. Now, I believe Jesus knew what he was going to do all along. I really do. I think it was a test for her. I think it was a test for his disciples. And I think he is showing us, those that this this story has has has come down to. I think he was showing us that he was about to do something new. You know, the old covenant was for Israel. The old covenant was limited, but he was about to open up the entire world for salvation. He was about to establish a new covenant that was for Israel and for us too. And so this woman is acknowledging Jesus as her savior, as her master, as her Lord. And he accepts her. He lets her come in. You know, he gives her what she has asked for and he commends her faith. This you gotta hand it to this woman. She was tenacious, she she knew what she needed, and she knew who could give that to her, and she went for it. And that's how we have to be when it comes to praying for our children. You know, when when you see things, when things are not going according to your plan, when things don't look good according to what how you think things should be, uh worry is not gonna change it. Uh nagging is certainly not gonna change it. Do you have the right to say something? Absolutely. If your children are little and you're still correcting and instructing, that's wonderful. That's that's what you're supposed to be doing. That's good. But there are some things that only God can do. And He does those through prayer. Yesterday at church, the Lord spoke to me through the message. We had a guest speaker, and he said something that really struck me in the heart. And, you know, I I love grace. I love the grace of God. I named my blog and my podcast, Grace for My Home, because I came to a point where I realized I cannot do this. I can't do anything that has any lasting value or meaning outside of God's grace. You know, my works are insufficient. I need the grace of God. But sometimes we as humans, human nature, sometimes we have a tendency to rely so much on the grace of God that we stop seeking and asking and knocking. It's like, oh, God will take care of it. You know, I don't I don't have to pray about that. God's got it. Or I don't have to worry about that, God's got it. And no, we don't need to worry about it, but we do need to bring it to Him. And there is a blessing in faith. There is a blessing in bringing God the things that we can't handle, that we can't hold, that we can't understand, and placing them at his feet and keeping on bringing those things to him until we know he's heard our prayer. You know, faith, in some ways, faith has gotten a bad name. And you might say, Why would why would you say that, Audrey? Because there's a whole group of people who took the message of faith and they they twisted it. You know, it's the name it and claim it um gospel. And, you know, they just said, if you believe, if you pray, you know, you can have whatever you want. And that's that's not how faith works. But, you know, we uh what's the what's the saying? Sometimes we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Faith is still a kingdom principle. And so though it's not us getting what we want from God, that's not what faith is. Faith is the way that we are to come to God. You know, faith is the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. You know, the Bible says we can't even please God without faith. And so, see, this woman, she demonstrated her faith to Jesus by her persistence and her refusal to be denied and her refusal to be offended, even when Jesus was silent, even when he didn't seem kind, even when he wasn't doing what she wanted him to do. You know, we can go to God in faith knowing that he's gonna answer us. Because we're his children. You know, we're part of the covenant. This woman didn't even have the promise that we have. She didn't even have the promise that she was a covenant child. We are covenant children by the blood of Jesus. We can come to him and ask and seek and knock. You know, Jesus tells us to. Now, I will tell you, sometimes, you know, we we can pray, we should pray till we get an answer. But I will tell you that sometimes the answer is no. But a no from my father is a good thing. You know, I if I know he's heard me, but the hard part is when we don't pray, we just float. You know, I I want to hear his voice. And even if it's a no, I want to know that he's heard my voice. And I want to bring my children to him in prayer. I want them to be placed at his feet. You know, like this woman. You notice Jesus never went to the child, Jesus never saw the child. In Mark's version, she goes home and the child's in the bed healed. You know, God can do it through your prayers, but you have to pray and believe and press through the times when maybe you're annoying people. Maybe they're like, she just keeps praying that prayer. You know, why does she keep praying that prayer? Because she believes that if she knocks, then God will open the door. Because she loves her children so much, and she believes that God loves them even more than she does, and that if she keeps praying, he will answer those prayers. So you see why I love this message so much? You see why I love this story so much? Here is a mama who loves her daughter so much that she presses into Jesus and refuses to let go until Jesus says it's gonna be okay. Have you ever been there? Have you ever had that heavy heart that you just you weren't sure if it was gonna be okay? But you knew the one who could make it okay. We have a wonderful promise that if we seek Jesus, we will find him, that if we bring our children to his feet, that he will touch them, that he loves them more than we love them, that they belong to him, and he wants us to bring them to him in prayer. And I believe he gives us as moms this wonderful example of a mama who would not be denied, who will not be shut out, who would not stop praying until she knew Jesus heard her request. Isn't that beautiful? Go to God in prayer. Keep praying, keep pressing. When we have a need, when we have a desire, when there's something that we need God to do, it can take our prayer life to a new level. Don't be shy. Go in there and knock on his door. Go in there and pray the prayer of faith. Pray the fervent prayer that gets through. Even when it it feels like nobody's listening, it feels like it's sitting in the ceiling and coming back down. Pray the prayer of faith. Keep praying and use this woman as your example. Ask, seek, and knock. You know, I I wrote a whole book for moms. I wrote a whole book to help moms pray for their children. Because I know what it feels like to want so much for your children and want to pray for them, but not know how to find the words. You know, sometimes when your heart is heavy, it's hard to find the words. And so I wrote a book to help you find the words. And it's called Covered in Prayer, 31 Prayers to cover you and your child in God's grace. I'm gonna put a link to that in the show notes, but I also want to give you something today. I want to give you a prayer that you can pray over your children, over your loved one, whoever is on your heart today that you want to see God touch and set free and work in their life. And I'm gonna put a link in the show notes if you want it. It's nothing fancy, it's not magic, it's just a prayer to get you started. That's why I wrote the book, because it's kind of like, you know, when when you go to when my kids were little, I would take them to the park. And I had three, and maybe you have more than that, but for me, three was I think God knew I couldn't handle more. And so I would have three running around, and they all wanted me to be beside them or push them, or and it was just one of me. But if they got on the swings, if I could give them a push, they'd get their momentum going and they could keep it going for a long time without me. And that's what I see this prayer as. It's a push, it's a it's an opportunity to give you the words to get you started, and then once you get in there, once you start praying with my words, that it becomes your words. And then it takes on a whole nother dimension. And and no longer are you reading my words, but God's giving you your own words. And so I'm gonna put a free PDF in the show notes of a prayer that you can pray for your children or your loved one and to get you started. And I'll also put a link to my book, covered in prayer. And I I hope they're a blessing to you. Guys, that's why I do this because I know what it's like to feel hopeless and worried and burdened by the things that should not be, the things you wish were different. And prayer is our way of getting in touch with heaven and bringing his will into the lives of those that we love. So I hope this has been a good message for you today. I hope it's been a blessing. If it has, if this has been encouragement to you, the biggest thanks that you could give me would be to share this message with a friend. Maybe you have a friend who has a child who has gone astray or who is struggling with something that seems impossible to overcome, or just needs a little encouragement that you're doing a good job, mama. If if you have a friend that you think could use that message, would you share my podcast with him today? I'd be so thankful if you would do that. And like I said, that's why I do this, because I love you, I love mamas, and we love our children, and together we're gonna knock on Jesus' door and see what he has for us. And I promise you it's good. If we ask him for a loaf of bread, he's not gonna give us a stone. If we ask him for a fish, he's not gonna give us a serpent. He gives good things to those who ask. Amen. Now before you go, let's pray. Father, I thank you for these precious mamas. I thank you that you hear their prayers and you care. You love their children more than than they do, which seems impossible. But Lord, you made their children and you know the plans that you have for them. And I pray for these mamas that hope would rise in their hearts, that faith, Lord, would their faith would be strengthened. And Lord, I just thank you for my friend today. In Jesus' name. Amen.