Eighteen Days before Christmas!

Have you ever considered the role of your faith in your miracle?

With nineteen days left in our countdown till Christmas, our reading from the Word of God comes from Luke chapter 7. It is amazing to me how rich the Gospel of Luke is on the subject of faith. In his rendering of the stories in this chapter, Luke placed a great emphasis upon the inter-connection between the compassion of God, man’s love for God, the power of God and man’s response to the word of faith. Many things could be said of the characters involved in each of Jesus’ many interventions on behalf of those who trusted in Him, but the thing that is of interest to me is His willingness to meet our needs when faith is present.

The Role of Faith

The essence of biblical faith is often seen through an act of simple obedience to God’s Word. The Bible tells us that obeying the Father was supremely important to Jesus, and He is our example. Obedience is the response of faith to any instruction from God. What can we learn from Luke’s account of the encounters of Jesus as they relate to our faith? First, there is the centurion who loved his servant (Luke 7:1-10); then, Jesus showed His love for the bereaved by raising the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17); next, Jesus offered His love of the afflicted and the poor as proof of His Messiahship to John the Baptist, laying stress on the publicans and harlots who accepted John's message (Luke 7:24-25); and then, He gave the explanation of how publicans and harlots were saved and the Pharisees were not, this explanation growing out of a dinner in the house of a Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50). In everyone of the aforementioned stories, Jesus’ response was based on His love for man and man’s willingness to believe in His ability to perform the miraculous.

Practical Advice

I want to encourage you to see whether or not you are a man or woman of faith. Jesus taught that true faith will always be manifested in obedience to God’s revealed will. Listen to these words:

"8 For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Luke 7:8-9)

Can the words that Christ spoke to the Centurion be said of you today?
May the Lord help us to embrace His redeeming love and trust in His sovereign power to intervene in our circumstances. Until next time, you think about that, Amen!