What is the greatest faith one can demonstrate? To trust God even in severe trials? To be patient when being taken advantage of by others? To believe God has a purpose even when He doesn’t heal you of your illness? To suffer silently when being martyred? All of those are incredibly great examples of real faith being displayed. But Jesus seems to indicate the greatest faith is to believe that God works through the authority He puts over us. In Matthew chapter 8 where a soldier comes to Jesus to ask Him to heal his servant, Jesus seems to be saying that this man has the greatest faith He had seen in all of Israel because he believed God worked through the authorities that God has set up in heaven and on earth. Read the passage and think deeply about what Jesus is telling us about faith in this passage. He is not only saying this centurion soldier had great faith because he believed Jesus could heal at a distance. But he believed God worked sovereignly through authority structures in this world. What does that mean about your faith in the church you are in, the government you are under and the parents you are under? Can you believe God is big enough to even work through people over you with wrong intentions? In Genesis 50, Joseph reveals that he has that much faith. He says that even his wicked brothers were used of God when they sold him into slavery and that God meant it all for a good purpose. Now that is faith! I challenge you to have faith like the centurion and like Joseph and trust God to work through the authority He has put over you. (The only time to rebel against our authority legitimately in Scripture is when the authority tells us to deny Christ.)
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 11:13:14 +0000
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