Faith & Love: A One Year Bible Reading Plan - Part 4Sample

Jesus had a very specific calling. He needed to show Israel that God was busy fulfilling His promises to them. They needed to see that the Kingdom they had been longing for had indeed arrived, and so Israel had a very specific purpose as well. They had been called to be the promise-bearers, by whom God’s new life would be brought into the rest of the world.

In this story of the Canaanite woman, something mind-blowing is taking place. She compares the future prospect of salvation to her current situation. Even though she accepts being called a “dog”, which at that time was often used as a disrespectful way of referring to the Gentiles, she still insists on her point that “even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

This woman had a clear revelation of who Jesus is and that salvation is in Him. And that revelation inspired a faith that broke through what was destined to be a waiting period in history and brought God’s future into her present need.

My prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit will right now strengthen your faith in the same way so that you can be a channel for God’s new life into the needs and realities of your present world.