The Faith of a Centurion

The Faith of a Centurion

"5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment."

The Centurion of Mat. 8 has huge faith, unlike any Jesus has met before, but he also has huge respect for who Jesus is, Lord, and sees his own depravity reflected off of Christ's righteousness. He is one of the few who looked at his own condition honestly in the presence of Jesus and understood his unworthyness. Yet, he also knew Jesus was full of mercy and grace, so never gave up hope that Jesus could and would help. What can we all learn from this? Approaching Jesus with what is in our hearts is important, but we must recognize the importance of understanding the difference and significance between our unrighteousness and Christ's perfection. We must first ask him to reveal to us our own condition, and seek honestly what needs to be dealt with in our own hearts, and then once that work is addressed, we can work on the things he has laid on our hearts. I personally feel that we are so limited in our prayer lives because we come so insistently and persistently with requests we hold dear, but forget that God is first and foremost concerned with our personal conditions. He always wants to bring it back around so it is about us, even when we crave for it to be about something else, beyond us for once! It just proves that he really does want what us best for us, and has our best interests in the center of his heart.

A Few Thoughts...Life Journaling: Matthew 6:19-34

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

19 x“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where ymoth and rust5 destroy and where thieves zbreak in and steal, 20 xbut lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 a“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 abut if byour eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 c“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and dmoney.6

Do Not Be Anxious

25 e“Therefore I tell you, fdo not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 gLook at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. hAre you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his ispan of life?7 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, jeven Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, kO you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For lthe Gentiles seek after all these things, and myour heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But nseek first othe kingdom of God and his righteousness, pand all these things will be added to you.

34 q“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

It is important to read these verses together, in context, because when we read them apart, I think the spirit of the verses is lost. The end verses can be used in justification by people who advocate against planning and preparation such as insurance, saving food from a good harvest for winter, and having a good supply of firewood... But perhaps these verses aren't telling us not to prepare. What they may be saying is that we can't let our preparations become an idol, receiving our devotion. For when we think we "are prepared" or "have it together" of our own doing, therein lies our issue! We can never, with of amount of preparation, be ready for what life will dish out. We must always rely on God first, no plan B. When we are blessed with enough to save for later, we must analyze this. Are we really to hang on to it, or have we been entrusted with the task of finding a person who needs it more than us? We are to bless others with what we have, even if it doesn't look like much. We ALWAYS have something to give. And when we are faithful with a little, we are blessed with more blessings to be responsible for. And then it is our job to be sure that those blessings don't become and idol to us, making us feel proud, stingy and conceited. What is in our hearts? A true desire to see everyone full of joy, working together to make Gods kingdom on earth prolific? Or a secret desire to feel "safe" and "secure?" These feelings are often rooted in pride, and flourish in an unwillingness to respond in obedience when God is asking us to respond in RADICAL obedience. We are all asked to analyze this in our own hearts, what is there? Will we receive a "good and faithful servant" from our savior? Remember this on this Easter weekend, he died so we can live, and live to the fullest, but not to our own devices, but rather according to all he has planned for us, which happens to be AN AMAZING LIFE!!