Thank God for Mothers Who Pray

Next Sunday is Mother’s Day. And so in honor of every mother who has ever prayed for her child or children, or for every mother who wonders if prayer works, I put forth a section of Scripture and the comments of Bishop J.C. Ryle who was the first Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, England.

Mark 7:25-29 - a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” ²⁸ And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs. ²⁹ Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter

 J. C. Ryle comments,

“The woman who came to our Lord, in the history now before us, must doubtless have been in deep affliction. She saw a beloved child possessed by an unclean spirit. She saw her in a condition in which no teaching could reach the mind, and no medicine could heal the body — a condition only one degree better than death itself. She hears of Jesus, and beseeches him to “cast forth the devil out of her daughter.” She prays for one who could not pray for herself, and never rests till her prayer is granted.

By prayer she obtains the cure which no human means could obtain. Through the prayer of the mother, the daughter is healed. On her own behalf that daughter did not speak a word; but her mother spoke for her to the Lord, and did not speak in vain. Hopeless and desperate as her case appeared, she had a praying mother, and where there is a praying mother there is always hope.”

Happy Mother’s Day. And thank you, mom, for praying for me.