the great charles

this is from a sermon Spurgeon preached from Matthew 15.27 about the Samaritan women. he's preaching this to those to seek salvation but do not feel they receive it immediately. BUT. the women was seeking Jesus to heal her possessed daughter...so i take comfort in this to apply it to my prayers for the saving of those i am sometimes tempted to despair over. i know not what His answer may be, but i will keep coming. til the day i die, if need be. -oh if he will give me perseverance!- i shall fight to view it as a delayed, not unanswered, prayer.

"Genuine seekers who as yet have not obtained the blessing, may take comfort from the story before us. The Saviour did not at once give the blessing, even though this woman had faith. Do not be startled; it is the truth. She had real and genuine faith in Christ when she came to Jesus, or else she would never have put up with the rebuffs of the disciples. Yet, believer as she was, she did not at first obtain the blessing which she sought. The Saviour always intended to give it, but he waited awhile. “He did not answer her a word.” Were not her prayers good? Never better in the world. Was not her case needy? Sorrowfully needy. Did she not feel her need sufficiently? She did feel it overwhelmingly. Was she not earnest enough? She was as earnest as ever a woman could be. Had she no faith? She had such a high degree of it that even Jesus wondered, and said, “Oh woman, great is your faith.” Yet for awhile she could not obtain an answer to her prayers. See then, dear friends, although it is true that faith brings peace, yet it does not always bring it instantaneously. There may be certain reasons calling for the trial of faith, rather than the reward of faith. Genuine faith may be in the soul like a hidden seed, but as yet it may not have budded and blossomed into joy and peace. Comfort is the child of faith, but it is not always as old as its mother. I say this to cheer some of you. Do not, I beseech you, give up seeking; do not give up trusting my Master, because you have not yet obtained the conscious joy which you long for. I do not doubt that you certainly will be saved, even though as yet no kindly promise has gladdened your heart. “Slowly the light breaks” on many a heart, but surely it will break before long." CHS http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2011/02/04/food-given-to-dogs