Thought for Monday 7 February

 Matthew 8:10

 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

Oswald Chambers once said "Faith, however, is not intellectual understanding; faith is a deliberate commitment to the person of Jesus Christ, even when I can't see the way ahead."

Faith is a ‘deliberate commitment’! In our case that commitment is to Jesus Christ, the only one who deserves our commitment.

This verse is about a Roman centurion who asked Jesus for help, explaining that his servant was paralysed and suffering, but instead of asking Jesus to come to his house the centurion said that if Jesus just spoke the word then the servant would be healed. This was a Roman soldier, an enemy of the Jews, but he had a faith beyond that of Jesus’ own countrymen. He believed in the healing power of Jesus and had faith that Jesus would heal the servant.

How different that was from Moses in the Desert of Zin, when the people were complaining about being thirsty and Moses asked God what he should do. God told him to take the staff and Aaron and gather the people together. Next Moses was to speak to the rock and water would pour out. However, Moses obviously thought God had forgotten something. Moses struck the rock twice with the staff….Numbers 20 vv 7-11…but God had only told Moses to speak to the rock. This lack of faith in God’s wisdom cost Moses and Aaron their chance of entering the Promised Land.

We all show a lack of faith occasionally, when we worry about various things happening in our lives. We try to fix them ourselves and just succeed in making them worse until that ‘light’ goes on and we look at last to God through His Son Jesus and suddenly the answer bites us in the…..nether regions.

Our belief in God and His Son is the only thing we can depend on in this life and we must hold on to it with both hands. If we find it wavering that’s when we need prayer for ourselves most.

 

Prayer

Faithful Saviour, help us to be like the centurion in today’s verse. He believed in You although he was a soldier in the Romans who controlled Your people. He had faith, not only that You could heal his servant but that You would heal him. Let us have faith in the abilities You gave Your followers when You gave us the Great Commission so that we may be able to bring others to by living our faith. Amen.