Part of a daily devotional series at Words of Hope (https://woh.org/word/devotionals/2013/03/17) looking at how people in the Bible handled tough situations:

Read Matthew 15:21-28

As I became a better hitter in baseball, I felt good when I was among the first ones chosen for a side in a pickup game. It’s an awful feeling, though, to be left out, not chosen.

The sea-dwelling Canaanites were not chosen. They had been thrown off the land first by Philistines, then later overwhelmed by Jews. The land was now Judah. And Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.

On a certain day a Canaanite woman interrupted Jesus while he was talking to his disciples. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession” (Matt 15:22 NIV). Jesus snubbed her three times by first ignoring her, then telling her she was not among the chosen, and finally comparing her and her people to dogs!

Some might have walked away after that, but this woman did not. She knelt and humbly asked only for “the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (v. 27 NIV). She let nothing— not even Jesus’ seeming rejection—keep her from Jesus’ blessing. Delighted by her response, Jesus granted the request.

There are times when we may feel outside the circle of God’s love. Sometimes God may seem distant and aloof, but if we humbly persist, he will bless us. It takes an attitude of humility and a certain amount of persistence. I believe in the saying, “You only fail when you stop trying.”