Mensa Otabil - Rewards of Faith (10/27/2025)
Welcome to day number 20 of our 40 Days of Power. We’ve come halfway on our spiritual journey, and if you’ve been able to make it this far, God will take us through the rest of the journey, and we will complete it with Him, by His grace. This week, we are talking about growing in faith and mounting up faith so that we can receive the things that God has promised us.
We turn to the New Testament and go to Matthew’s Gospel, reading from chapter 15, verse number 28. Then Jesus answered and said to her, «O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.» And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
This is a very desperate woman. The Bible describes her in various ways-as a Canaanite woman or a Syrophoenician woman. That means she’s not an Israelite; she is not in covenant with God. She comes to Jesus because her daughter is tormented, and she wants relief for her daughter. The difficulty for her is that she’s not in covenant with God; she’s an outsider. Her people don’t worship God, and yet she still wants Jesus to help her.
She faces a lot of difficulties, but she persists and receives a miracle. Jesus describes her faith as great faith. So, what are the characteristics of great faith? What shows that our faith is great or not? From this woman, we learn a couple of things about great faith.
First, great faith passes the test of faith. Now, this woman’s faith was tested when she desired a miracle from Jesus. Jesus initially ignored her. She has to deal with her own biases-she is not a Jew, and her people didn’t like the Jews. Probably the Jews didn’t like her either. The disciples of Jesus didn’t like her, and Jesus is ignoring her. But when her faith is tested, she passes the test.
One thing you must understand is that faith is always tested. It’s not like magic; it’s not like you pray and immediately get the answer. You might fast for a day, and everything may not work out perfectly. There will be tests of faith when your faith will be tested. Sometimes it is tested by delay, fear, anxiety, and all those worries. Faith will be tested, and great faith is the faith that passes the test and does not give up in the face of obstacles.
The second thing about great faith is that great faith connects to God’s faithfulness. We don’t have faith in ourselves; we don’t have faith in our own faith. We have faith in God’s faithfulness. Jesus had told this woman that healing is the bread of the children; the children mean the Israelites. He says it belongs to them; they are the covenant children of God. Healing belongs to the children.
This woman replies, «Well, even the crumbs that fall from the children’s bread can be eaten.» In other words, if God is faithful to heal the Israelites, then I believe that this same faithful God who heals the Israelites can also heal me, a non- Israelite. So, she connects to God’s faithfulness. Her faith is not just in her persistence, but in the faithfulness of God-the one who provides healing, the one who delivers, the one who supplies all our needs.
Listen to me: your faith must go beyond a church, beyond a man of God, beyond yourself, beyond how long you pray, and instead connect to God’s faithfulness. Great faith is connected to God’s faithfulness, and great faith receives reward from God. In the end, it will be tested, but it will be rewarded.
I don’t know whether your faith has been tested or is currently being tested, but great faith is always rewarded, just as this woman’s faith was rewarded. May the Lord reward our faith in these 40 days as we trust Him.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, help me to pass the test of faith and receive the reward of all Your promises to me. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.