God Speaks I Listen

The Centurion ordered them to go get Jesus to heal his servant

Luke 7:1-10
When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

The Lord told me to share this story today. It‘s a very powerful story and has been on my heart for weeks…but today is the day that someone needs to be reminded of this powerful story.

This compassionate man first humbled himself in the presence of Jesus….he was a Roman soldier and He was giving honor to a Jewish man (Jesus) in front of everyone. He had heard about Jesus and believed He could heal….He believed Jesus had authority to do powerful things. He also saw the value in his servants life…..he cared enough about someone to humble himself and reach out for help. This is a good example of interceding for some else’s suffering.

This centurion truly had faith that Jesus could help his servant and there were powerful 4 words he spoke by way of his friends…….”BUT SAY THE WORD”….and my servant will be healed. Jesus response here is something for us to meditate on……”I HAVE NOT FOUND SUCH GREAT FAITH EVEN IN ISRAEL.”

We have the word of the Lord….the bible which is packed with everything we need to help us. It is a living book and when we humble ourselves, read it and believe in what God says He can do and will do for us….blessings will follow us.

What kind of faith do you have today?……Great faith?…..You know…this is a special story and God included this story in His word along with many other true stories of biblical people great faith. He wanted us to be positive about His abilities to meet our every need….but He also knows we will struggle to keep our faith at this level.
Mathew 17:20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

You can start out with a little faith like when you first came to the Lord….you had saving faith….but over time as you grew in the Lord and studied the word of God your faith began to grow. A mustard seed starts out very tiny, but overtime it grows into a large plant.

Our faith needs to continue to mature and grow. Great faith….I love the way that sounds….great faith. I need it…I want it.

Right now my faith is at an all time high. Yes…God has done some really big miracles for me recently and has been doing that all the time for me….but since I have been doing this blog for almost a half of year my faith has really increased. I have cut way back on TV and spent much more time wanting to be in His presence.

All the prayer, daily seeking God and studying His word has been responsible for increasing my faith.

We don’t lose our faith like a lost wallet….. There is no lost and found with faith…..Either you have it or you don’t.   There are times though when my faith does get weak. It can happen when I’m extremely tired, have had many very difficult trials in a row or I’ve been very sick. At these times I feel the prayers of my family, friends and church sister and brothers. That’s why the bible says to pray for one another. The Holy Spirit ALWAYS is with me and leads me back to a higher place in the Lord. I recover and my faith recovers and is even greater when I realize what the Lord just did for me.

Message for today: I know you want to have great faith….and you know what….you do have faith….and it will develop and grow. Don’t beat yourself up and say….I wish I had faith like him or her…..Study Gods word and trust in Him with all your heart and your faith will increase.