Prayer

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

"First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

"Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."

She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone (Mark 7:24-30).

I am sure there is a perfectly good explanation for why Jesus seems to liken this gentile woman to a dog. I could probably even postulate a guess. However, I am not sure any guess would make this exchange seem appropriate. But unless John is misremembering the details a bit, I am faced with dealing with it. The most interesting thing to me about this story is that it seems that the woman's faith changes Jesus' mind. No offense, Father Luther.

I took a very intensive class on the prophet and book of Isaiah last summer. In studying this major prophet, it was interesting just how many times God was described in human terms (his arm being strong, being filled with grief, being moved to tears, etc).

Is it heretical to suggest prayer is a bit fickle? Maybe so, but I would be lying if I said I understand how God hears and responds to my prayers. Does God have the cosmos rolling in a way that leaves us as mere actors in a play that has been written long ago (either billions of years or about 5000)? Or is God more like an author who only writes those books we read as children where when coming upon a pivotal point in the storyline you could choose which direction you would like the story to go and turn to that particular page? Or maybe God is a painter who has been working on a masterpiece since time began, and now he has handed us the brush (maybe we always had the brush). We are not going to know the answers to such questions until we stand before our Maker. Until then, I will continue to pray.

Oswald Chambers said that "prayer does not necessarily change things, prayer changes me, then I change things."

Isaiah's admonitions to the Israelites to live more righteous lives did not always fall on deaf ears. King Hezekiah was a tough, good leader who loved God and his people. As Hezekiah was about to die, he feared what would happen to his people without his leadership. He feared that he was about to die when there was so much work left to be done. He expressed this to Isaiah when Isaiah came to tell him that his time was up. As Isaiah left Hezekiah, God quickly turned him around to deliver a different message. Hezekiah had 15 more years to live.

Maybe everything is already planned out. But if you are not so sure. If you think that God heard Hezekiah and in a wave of emotion decided to let him live, you will not hear criticism from me.