Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…
But he answered her not a word. His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.” – Matthew 15:23
There is something very remarkable in Christ’s silence. Usually He was quick to hear every request made to Him by someone in need. It was unusual for anyone to have to ask twice for a favor. His heart was sensitive like a mother’s heart to the cries of her child, and instantly responded to every cry for help. Yet now He stood and listened to this woman’s pleading and chose not to answer her at all. Like a miser with great wealth at his disposal who refuses to acknowledge the cries of the poor and needy who come to him for help, so Jesus stood unmoved by this woman’s cries, though He had all power in His hands.
Why was He silent? It was not because He couldn’t help her, for His arm was never weak. The best of us have our weak hours, our days of emptiness, when we have nothing within us to help; but Christ’s fullness was never exhausted. It was not because He was so engrossed in His own approaching sorrows that He couldn’t think anyone else’s sorrow, for even while being crucified He forgot Himself to show kindness to others. Evidently the reason for silence was to try this mother’s faith, and to draw it out into still greater strength. He was preparing her to ultimately receive a better blessing than she could have received at the beginning.
Our Lord sometimes seems to be silent to His people when they cry to Him. To all their heartfelt cries He doesn’t answer a word. Is His silence a refusal? Not at all! Often it is meant only to make us more determined and to prepare our hearts to receive richer and greater blessings. So when Christ is silent to our prayers, it is so that we might be brought down in deeper humility at His feet, and that our hearts may be made more fit to receive heaven’s gifts and blessings.
Good Devotionals 