Bread Crumbs of Life

Asking for help is a very humiliating experience. It goes against the self-reliance teaching of independence. I remember people talking about others who asked for help. They would say, “They have no shame.” Which meant they had no pride. It was an embarrassment and humiliation to ask for help. Instead of reaching out a helping hand to those in need, people would avoid them.

When someone would try to give me money or want to buy my lunch, I wouldn’t let them. I thought, I am depending on God and not on man. What a messed-up way of thinking! It reminds me of a story about a man in a flood. A man in a boat came by to help the flood victim. He wouldn’t get in the boat because he said he was waiting on God to rescue him. The water got higher and it was on the second floor. Another man in a boat came by and the man wouldn’t get in because he was waiting on God. Next, the victim was on the roof and a helicopter came by but he wouldn’t get in. Needless to say, the man drowned. In heaven, he asked God why he didn’t rescue him? God said, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter.”

Answered Prayers God’s Way

First of all, God humbles the prideful. Second, God tells us to ask, seek and knock. Third, we don’t get to pick how God is going to send the help. He could give you a jaw of a donkey to use against your enemies like Samson. He could tell you to give the last of your food and water to a stranger. This giving released an unlimited supply of food through a famine that fed Elijah and the widow. Would you go fishing to pay your taxes? Peter did and he found a gold coin in a fish’s mouth.

You want great faith? Great faith knows who has the supply and is willing to humble themselves to get it from the supplier. You can’t earn it. You can’t pay for it. You have to ask for it. Isaiah 55:1-3 “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy.” How can you buy without money? You humble yourself and ask God, who is the supplier of all things. Then accept how he supplies your need.

Great Faith

A Canaanite woman, who was not supposed to talk to a Jew, humbled herself and asked. Even when Jesus called her a dog (which is a gentile or unbeliever), she pressed in and asked for crumbs.

Matthew 15:21-28 NIV “A Canaanite women from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.’ Jesus did not answer a word. So, his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ The women came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord, she said, ‘but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then, Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have GREAT FAITH! You request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”

You can see the steps of great faith in this incident. She knew Jesus was the source of healing. She was willing to go against tradition to talk to a Jew, even though she was a woman and a Canaanite. She was ignored. She endured the correction that this source was not for her. She asked again by stating she was willing to take the crumbs, which showed she had a place at the table even if it was as a domestic dog (gentile) under the table. Her persistence, not only brought deliverance and healing to her daughter, but caused Jesus to acknowledge she had great faith.

Great Faith knows:

•         Jesus is the source of all answered prayer.

•         It is willing to change its attitude from victim and poor me to worshiping Jesus.

•         It is willing to ask more than once.

•         It is willing to go against tradition and man’s rules.

•         It is willing to be ignored.

•         It is willing to stand in line even if it appears you are the last one or least deserving.

•         Instead of being a victim, you turned it into great faith by being willing to receive

crumbs!

Bread Crumbs Seeds of Faith

Bread crumbs are a mustard seed which can move a mountain. An acorn of faith when planted can grow into a giant oak tree. One of the things we need to understand when God answers prayer is that it may not come the way we expect. Moses knew the call of God on his life but to fulfill that call he had to go to the desert and tend sheep for forty years. This prepared him to shepherd Israel for forty years in the desert.

Asking for help and walking out the path God has given you can be a very humbling process. Walking this way, trusting God when we don’t know what is next, can change a family, church or nation. God is your judge not the world. Don’t allow the world to squeeze you into their box. God uses the foolish things to confound the wise of this world. I would rather be a fool for God and have rewards in heaven than be loved by the world and be a pauper in heaven.

Declaration

Father God, I ask for strength, wisdom and a humble heart be on us. Remove the poverty mindset of self-reliance. Help us to receive the help you send us. May we not despise the day of small beginnings. May our eyes be open to your kingdom ways. Let us be foolish to the world but rich in God. Jesus, we choose you. You are our source and we are not victims but overcomers!

Scriptures

James 4:6-7; Matthew 7:7-12; Judges 15:16; 1 Kings 17; Matthew 17:20 & 20-27; 1 Corinthians 1:27; Exodus 2 & 3; Zechariah 4:10; 1 John 5:4