Sunday 4 Mar 2012

Sunday Reading: Luke 7:1-10

Key Verse: Luke 7:7
7  Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.

Devotion:
Imagine what it would be like to be able to go to a doctor sick and they would be able to send you away well again – without going through all the hassle of diagnosis, false diagnosis, medicines, prescriptions, re-visits, referrals and all manner of other hoops we try to jump through just to get better! That is what this Romans Centurion believed, that he would be able to call on the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ and that is all that had to be done!

It is a wonder in itself that this man showed so much faith that he believed things would happen just because Jesus could do it! When we think of such faith we probably begin to feel quite weak in ourselves because we begin to see the flaws in our own faith. That is not what Christ wants but rather what the evil one wants. He is the one that casts doubt when there should be no doubt. He is the one who tries to trip us up before we get there just so that he can weaken our resolve and put another crack in our faith.

Jesus was the centre of attention at that time because He was doing the healing and resurrecting. Nobody before nor since was able to have such a ministry for all to see and believe in.  You could be forgiven to think that this centurion had little cause to doubt when there was so much evidence right in front of Him. Well, guess what… we have even more evidence than this centurion had because we have everything written down in writing in a single book we call our Bible. What we have in our Bibles is a mountain of evidence that backs up everything that we get to hear about. The stories such as these are told multiple times; on in other words have multiple witnesses. In a court of law that would be called proof enough!

Why then does our faith wane? Why then does our faith have so many cracks in it? The answer is not an easy one to admit to because we have to admit that we have let things slip! We have to admit that we are in the wrong and that we do need to change. It is that change that Christ has already placed in our hearts that He wants to see come about within us and not just to pay lip service to! God wants us to live for Him and not to just live because someone said so!

Points to Ponder:
Do you doubt your faith?

Are you placing all your trust in God?