This man got what he needed not because the man was his friend, but rather because he dared to persist in asking despite the late hour.
If you are to get free from overeating and laziness, you will need to bang on God's door and keep pleading until He answers. Keep begging Him to give you a plan that is effective and powerful in your life. "Ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).
Even if you have weak faith, and cannot see yourself as God's friend; or even if you feel yourself to be God's enemy in your mind because of your evil behavior, just keep on asking God, knocking on His door and crying out to Him. Beg Him to tell you what you need to do to be free and give you the grace to do it!
In Matthew 15:21-28, we read of a Canaanite woman who came to Jesus asking His help with her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus was silent. She asked Him again. He told her He wasn't sent to the Canaanite people. She persisted. The disciples urged Jesus to send the woman away. She kept begging for help. Jesus said, "It's not right to throw the children's bread to the dogs." She responded, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat crumbs from the master's table." She took a humble place, but was unrelenting! She refused to take “no” for an answer.
Question 5. What do you learn from this Canaanite woman’s encounter with Jesus?
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Do you see this is how to get what you need from Jesus? Do you see this is the model? Nothing less will do. To get free, you will have to keep coming to Jesus in humility, asking for your personal pathway to freedom. Persist through any difficulty and danger and keep assailing Him with your prayers, tears, and cries. Refuse to take no for an answer!
Friend, you know that involvement with overeating, binge eating, emotional eating, laziness, etc. promotes selfish and sinful living. It lures us with instant gratification and doesn't ask us to give to others, to love, serve, or minister. It fosters self-centered and self-indulgent thinking and actions. It is the thinking that all lust inspires, whether that lust is for food, sex, drugs, power, status, etc. and this is what has to change!
When it comes to finding freedom from fleshly living, it is rarely instantaneous. Instead, God has some things to teach us along the way. We learn patient endurance and persistence in prayer. If the answer doesn't come immediately, we don't give up. We accept that God is changing us, remaking us into His image, and this takes time. God is drawing out our faith by not responding immediately.
As we close, I want to encourage you with the reason why you can come to God with boldness, tenacity, perseverance, and audacity.
Consider for a moment that the place where you are meeting with God is a throne of grace. "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
Question 6. What does God promise us when we go to His throne of grace?