God’s precious promises – Day 13

If only we could all have the faith of the Roman centurion who approached Jesus at Capernaum and asked him to heal his seriously ill servant.

When Jesus offered to visit the servant, the centurion so trusted Jesus, he said: “Lord just say the word and my servant will be healed.” His reply stunned Jesus who said to those following him: “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

In the Christian religion faith, hope and love are the three most important graces. Faith is mentioned more often than hope or love in the New Testament.

Few Christians, if they are brutally honest with themselves, will place their faith on the same level as the centurion. Most of us have a streak of the apostle Thomas who has been harshly dubbed for posterity as “Doubting Thomas”. Because of our own doubts, our faith often becomes an intellectual exercise as we try to rationalise what we believe in.

Take nothing away from Thomas, he was a brave man, prepared even to die for Jesus (John 11:16). However, after the crucifixion he could not accept that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:25).

Then Jesus appeared in the upper room where the disciples had gathered and invited Thomas to put his finger on the nail prints on Jesus’ hands, and Thomas’ own hand in Jesus’ side. He told Thomas to stop doubting and to believe.

Thomas realised he was in the presence of the risen Lord and uttered the greatest confession found in the New Testament: “My Lord and my God.”

It’s the confession we all need to make. We need to affirm as Paul did: “The life which I now live in the flesh is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Faith is a personal relationship forged when a repentant sinner bonds with Christ.

How privileged we are to be part of Gods family for “The Lord is trustworthy in all his promises and faithful in all he does” (Psalms 145:13).