Of Prayer and Worship

“Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.” (Mt 15:25 AV)

The woman spoken of here was a Gentile woman whose daughter was vexed with an unclean spirit.  She came to Jesus as a desperate mother who had little expectation the Messiah would entertain her needs.  She was not Jewish and the Messiah was sent to the lost sheep of Israel first.  She knew that.  But she was at her wit’s end.  She had nowhere else to turn and, she truly believed Jesus to be who He claimed to be.  As an aside, the two individuals of whom Jesus extols their faith were both Gentile.  What we want to ponder this morning is the actions of this woman are defined as worship.  Her desperate request from the only One who could meet her need was an act of worship.  Falling at His feet and begging for mercy for her daughter was an act of worship that greatly moved our LORD.  So much so that He recognized and rewarded her humility and faith.  This act of this Gentile woman stirred my mind and heart as I pondered how much worship goes into my prayer requests.  Do I fall at the feet of almighty God with the needs of my life and those of others with as much desperation and dependence as this desperate mother?  What a question!

Her prayer was simple.  Only three words.  She addressed God as He should be addressed.   She calls Him, Lord.  This is not a passing title.  This is not a mere acknowledgment of Jesus as a teacher.  Her address of Him is much deeper than that.  She addresses Him and LORD and God.  She falls at His feet as the One who deserves all praise.  She is totally empty of herself.  Her only care is her daughter and she knows that only God can fix her.  The simplicity of her prayer reveals an absence of pretense.  There are no flowery words.  There is no extended explanation of her need as if God doesn’t know the details.  She is totally focused on the One who can meet her most pressing need.  She is not coming for herself.  She has raised her daughter and seen the torment she lives with every day.  She has coddled her.  She has fed her.  She has cared for her every physical and emotional need.  Yet without relief.  The mother heard of Jesus.  She knew who He was and what it was that He accomplished.  Just earlier in the chapter, our writer instructs us the entire area heard of all the miracles the Messiah did.  They heard that He opened the dumb mouths, caused the blind to see, healed the lame, and the deaf were able to hear.  His reputation passed to the shores of the Gentile nations.  This is from where this mother came.  Three little words were all it took.  The heart behind those words is what accomplished the miracle.

When I see the faith of this mother and the desperation in three little words, I have to ask myself if I am just as desperate to see God work in the lives of those around me.  One wonders if we fall at the feet of almighty God with as much of a pressed heart as this mother did.  If not, then we have to ask ourselves the next relevant question.  How deep is our worship?  How moved are we to come to Christ with bowed knees and broken hearts?  Are we enough like this mother to say we truly worship God?  Most of what passes off for worship nowadays is nothing more than an emotional show.  It is a performance designed to meet our shallow needs.  There is no agony of spirit.  There is no complete dependency.  There is little by way of desperation.  It is frothy.  It is a wading pool of temporary emotional manipulation that has a form of godliness, but it denies the power thereof.  Our worship is all about how it makes us feel.  It is not the acknowledging of an almighty God who holds all things in His hand.  Worship today does not include a completely broken heart.  It is not the woman above who utters only three words and is heard of Christ.  That is the worship that is missing.  That is the worship to which we need to return.