Dave's Diary

Before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 119:71-72

Lord, in my difficult times I have come to discover Your decrees,
and to realize that the law from Your mouth is more precious to me
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold
So speak Your precious word to me today, I pray.
Amen.

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your awareness to the voice of God, coming to you through His Word.

Reading

Matthew 8:5-13 

We are on a year-long quest to discover everything Jesus commanded us. Like yesterday, today’s reading describes a situation where Jesus gave an instruction to an individual, and not a general command. So we have to discern whether we can derive from it a general command that is relevant for all disciples everywhere.

The centurion came to Jesus with a situation he was unable to solve: His slave was suffering terribly. It strikes me that his approach to Jesus in this passage is essentially equivalent to a moment of prayer. He approaches Jesus humbly. He presents his impossible situation before Jesus. Then he waits on Jesus for a response. It’s prayer in real time.

And when Jesus responds, He gives the centurion the only command present in this passage. Right at the end of their interaction, Jesus says: ‘Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.’

The centurion had come to Jesus with a heartfelt request for help in a situation that deeply troubled him. Jesus did nothing in that moment, other than give the centurion the assurance that his request would be dealt with favourably. Jesus gave no further explanation and no timeline. He just commanded the centurion to go back home believing that Jesus’ help and healing would come.

I believe we can derive from this passage that Jesus loves it when we come to Him in prayer, calling on Him to help us with a seemingly impossible situation; but He does not want prayer to become a way we try to avoid or escape from the world and its real troubles. When we have prayed, He calls us to leave our time of prayer, return to the situations we have brought to Him, and go about doing our best to deal with them. Only then will we discover that He is already at work answering our prayers!

Our answers may come as swiftly and dramatically as they did for the centurion, or they may be far slower and require more grace-empowered effort on our part. But our call is to get back to work once we have prayed – so that we may see the miraculous hand of the Lord at work in our seemingly impossible situations.

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ: 

• I will pray with faith for the Lord to work miracles in my difficult situations.
• I will return from prayer to face them courageously.

Lord, please grant me that wonderful balance between praying with faith and acting on faith. Amen.