Thanks for joining us on this journey of building a consistent habit of reading our Bibles every day. The Bible reading plan we are using this year can be found here: One Year Bible or here on the Bible app. As always, if you miss a day, don’t feel compelled to go back and catch up. Just skip it and start back on today’s date. I am reading the NLT this year, but feel free to use whatever version you prefer. Now here are some thoughts from today’s readings:
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!”
– Luke 7:9
Jesus said the centurion had “great faith”. In fact, He said His faith was greater than any He had seen in Israel. This seems a bit shocking. Can you imagine how Peter and the disciples felt? But we need to take notice when we see Jesus praising someone and see what they did to merit His attention and praise. After all, if pleasing Jesus is our aim, then it helps to see how others in the Bible did it so we can do the same.
First we see the man trusted that Jesus could heal his servant. Most believers today believe God can do anything, but, unfortunately, that’s where many of us stop. The centurion take this to a second, deeper step. He not only could believed Jesus could heal his servant, he believed Jesus was God and that He would heal his servant. See the major difference there? Third, we see that he is asking for Jesus’ power to be released not for himself, but for His servant. It’s not that you can’t pray for yourself. You can and you should. But your prayers should be no means mostly be about what God can do for you. Look for others you can lift up in prayer. Make a prayer list. Take it seriously. Then, through your prayers for others, you’ll build the faith and confidence to take your own personal requests to God.
Fourth, we read that he understood that he was in no way worthy of Jesus’ attention. Jesus didn’t have to do it. He’s not a coke machine that you can just put your prayer into and out pops your answer. He’s a person. The Son of the living God, actually. No matter how powerful the centurion thought himself, He knew he was nothing compared to Jesus and Jesus didn’t owe him anything. If Jesus was going to answer his request, it wasn’t because of how good the centurion had been, it was because of how good Jesus was. Fifth, and finally, he believed there was enough power in Jesus’ word to supply his need. Wherever his servant was and no matter how far away Jesus may have seemed, a word from Christ was all the centurion knew He needed. That’s all you need, as well. If the centurion can believe Jesus like this, I bet you and I can too!
Measure your faith against the centurion’s. Do you have great faith?