faith

In Luke chapters 7 and 8, there are 2 stories about faith. One is the story of Jesus and the disciples, out on the boat, sailing across the lake. A dangerous storm is sending giant waves of water to the point that the boat is flooding. The disciples are in fear of their lives, yet in the midst of it all, where is Jesus? He is sleeping. Sleeping! Imagine that! They wake him quickly shouting "we are going to die!". There is little doubt that they wanted His help, but rather than expecting Him to calm the storm, they were more likely expecting Him to help them bail the water out of the boat! After Jesus rebukes the storm and the winds and waves calm, the disciples are amazed at what He had done.

The other story of faith is one of a man, a centurian, who has a servant who is sick. This man sends some guys to go ask Jesus to come to his house and heal the servant. These guys try to justify to Jesus how worthy this man is to have it done. Yet the centurian realizes that he is not at all worthy, and so, he sends others to tell Jesus not to bother coming to his house, because he is not worthy. But this man will not let his own unworthiness interfere with his servants need, he has the guys tell Jesus "Just say the word and my servant will be well". This man has an understanding of who Jesus is, and of who he himself is, and is not. He is not the worthy man he has been described to be, but despite his inadequacies, he posesses greater faith than even the disciples who have spent so much time with Christ.

In life, we can ask Jesus to help us bail the water out of the boat, or we can understand who we are and who He is and can put trust in what He can do and what He will do. What choice will you make? Who is He to you?