Got Amazing Faith?
40 Days with Jesus – October 20th – Luke 7:1-10
There is a story in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 17:14-20) where a man approached Jesus and begged Him to heal his son, who suffered from crazed seizures (Jesus knew he was possessed by a demon). The man explained that he had taken the boy to Jesus’ disciples, but they couldn’t help him. When Jesus saw the boy, he ordered the afflicting demon out, and the boy was instantly well. The disciples asked why they had failed at driving out the demon, and Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith! I tell you, if you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would. Nothing would be impossible for you.”
Wow! So here we have the disciples, the men that walked and talked each day with Jesus… who saw the miraculous things He did… and yet were running short on faith! If they were lacking in the faith department, how am I ever going to be capable of trusting God enough? Now I know that the disciples didn’t always suffer from FDD (faith-deficit disorder)… but it’s obvious that Jesus used this event in Matthew to challenge them to trust God more (and they did).
In today’s passage from Luke, we read about someone who had never even met Jesus, yet impressed Him with his show of faith. (Read Luke 7:1-10)
A Roman Captain in Capernaum had a favorite servant who had fallen deathly ill. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in town, he sent friends to ask Jesus to come and heal the servant. They went and asked, and as Jesus was returning with them to the Captain’s house, another group of friends met them with a new message from the Captain, “Master, I don’t deserve for you to come to my house. I’m not even worthy of coming to you. But if you just give the order, I know my servant will get well.” The passage goes on to say that, as an officer, the Captain understood how authority worked. He took orders from those above him, and he gave orders to those below him. Orders were followed. Period! And he believed that Jesus had the authority to heal his servant. Period!
Verse 9 says that Jesus was “amazed” by the Captain’s faith. In The Message version of the Bible, it says that Jesus was “taken aback,” and that He turned to the people around Him and said, “Whoa! Now THAT’S what I’m talking about!” Well… not even The Message says it quite like that… but Jesus did tell the crowd that He had never seen such strong faith before.
Do you wish you had that kind of faith? I know I do. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to “amaze” Jesus. I try to rely on God with every part of my life, but too often I relapse into FDD. I find myself too tired, and too busy, juggling too many challenges and crises at once, and then I lose my focus on Him and try to handle everything myself. The result is always a frustrating mess.
But here’s the good news… Jesus is always faithful, loving us perfectly and patiently even when we experience FDD, willing and waiting for us to “catch up” in our following Him.
The goal of this “40-Days With Jesus” study is for each of us to spend more time with Him and to know Him more. As you spend time reading these scriptures, pray with me that He will teach us to trust Him more, and help us grow deeper in our faith. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Tim Trinkle
www.chetscreek.com Read it and Share it on DoYouReallyBelieve.com! Register to the site via email: Email registration Discuss it and Like it at: Facebook Follow the site on Twitter: Twitter
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