Feeling Ignored

Feeling Ignored

The Mother Of A Demon-possessed Daughter

Read: Matthew 15:21-23

Becky sat stiffly in the hard plastic chair and rocked her toddler back and forth. Dylan had finally cried himself to sleep, and now she was fighting back tears of her own. The accident had happened so quickly. One minute he had been laughing on top of the slide, then suddenly he was on the ground, holding his arm tightly to his chest and screaming if she touched it. Now they had been in the emergency room for more than two hours, and still no one had attended to them. As Becky looked at the women behind the desk, she felt like screaming, “Can’t you see my child needs help?”

The woman in today’s Bible passage knew the feeling of being ignored. She had heard stories about Jesus’ miracles and healings. Now he had come to her city, and her heavy heart felt the first ray of hope in a long while. The woman cried out to Jesus, begging him to help her daughter, who suffered terribly from demon possession, but he ignored her cries. When she kept pleading for help, Jesus’ disciples urged him to make her go away. The woman felt confused. Was this the same man who had a reputation for reaching out to the needy?

It doesn’t feel good to be ignored, especially when we need help. It’s frustrating enough to feel overlooked by people, but when it seems that even God isn’t responding to us, we don’t know what to think. Sometimes our prayers for help seem to bounce back off the ceiling. At those times, it’s tempting to question whether God really cares about us and our pain. When God seems to be ignoring us, we can be sure that he is fully aware of our situation and that there is a purpose for his delay in responding. Like the Gentile woman with the demon-possessed daughter, we must continue crying out to the One who is our only hope.

The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.

Psalm 34:15