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He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that deligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word.”

Have you ever been ignored? How did you like it? It’s surprising that she stayed around. “And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.” She’s bothering us. Why don’t you get rid of her? Jesus’ first words, apparently going along with the disciples, were, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” “Then came she and worshipped him.” Worshiped Him? Do you worship the people who ignore you and say they didn’t come to help you? And she said, “Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet [right] to take the children’s bread and cast it to dogs.” But this was the opening she had been looking for. “She said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” If I am a dog, I am entitled to some dog food.

Jesus must have had a twinkle in His eye during this whole conversation. She must have seen it. “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (Matthew 15:21-28).

How do you define “faith” in this story? Taking God at His word? If she had taken God at His word, she would have been gone long before He got to the “dogs” part. Do you define faith in terms of believing? Believing what Jesus said? You can’t. It doesn’t fit. Faith, in her case, was disbelieving what Jesus said. Faith was not taking Him at His word.

So you come to the definition of faith as Jesus used it. It is the real definition of faith. One word: trust. The book Education, page 253, says, “Faith is trusting God.”

The premise is that Jesus is completely trustworthy. If you don’t believe that, you don’t know Him yet. The person who is not quite sure that he can trust Jesus is the one who doesn’t know Him. Faith comes, not to those who seek it, but to those who seek it not, who seek only to know Jesus.