Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 8:1-13; Luke 7.
When Jesus was informed of a centurion’s servant who was near death, He headed to the man’s house. But before He arrived, the centurion sent a message to Him. His message to Jesus proved to be a great expression of faith.
“Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far away from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, “Go!” and he goes, and to another, “Come!” and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this!” and he does it.’ Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, ‘I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith’” (Luke 7:6-9).
Notice some characteristics of the centurions “great faith“:
- The centurion recognized his own unworthiness. Though he held a position of authority in the most powerful military in the world at that time, he knew that he was not worthy to have Jesus under his roof.
- The centurion recognized the power of Jesus. Having heard of Jesus, he was convinced that the Lord could help his servant even though the man was near death.
- The centurion appreciated the authority of Christ. He understood how authority worked. He had authority over his men; therefore, he could just say the word and they would obey. He recognized Jesus as having authority over every aspect of man’s existence, such that He could just “say the word,” and heal his servant.
May we have such faith in Christ today!
Tomorrow’s reading: Matthew 11
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
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