Healing the sick

Jesus performed all kinds of miracles during His 3 year ministry.  We know that He could have healed every sick person in the world during this time.  But His real purpose was to seek and save the lost.  His was a spiritual ministry. 

There are different ways to learn the Bible.  One can spend time in study, or just read.......or lately I have been just skimming.  My purpose in skimming through was to learn better, or memorize, the location of key passages.  I decided to start with the book of Matthew.  It is hard to do this because there is a tendency to get bogged down and start studying in more depth.  But I have been trying.

In Matthew we have the sermon on the mount in chapters 5-7.  Then there is a healing of a leper that comes up soon after.  But there is a really neat story about a Centurion's servant who gets sick, a servant who is dearly loved by the officer.  First, note that a Centurion is an officer over 100 men, a respectable and well paid position.  And note, too, that this story is also told in Luke 6.  The accounts quote the officer saying that if he tells his men to go...or stay....or do, they will do that.  He says that because he realizes that Jesus is of much higher authority.  In fact, he doesn't even feel worthy to go to Jesus directly, but sends some of his Jewish friends to appeal to Jesus to save the servant.  But the key to this story is that he knows,  he knows,  that Jesus has the power to save his servant, even from a distance.  Jesus, realizing the great faith that this Centurion has in Him, is so impressed that He says, "I have never seen such great faith."

The point of this story can be well applied to us today.  Jesus was impressed with this man because of his belief in Him.  It wasn't anything that he did, any great work.  In fact the Centurion did nothing of himself; he stayed home and just sent messengers.  But it shows that Jesus wants first and foremost from us all our faith, our confidence in Him.  It reminds me of the verse in Romans 11:6, "For without faith it is impossible to please Him.  For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

God wants us to be servants, to work for Him, to do good.  But mostly God wants us to be people of faith; people who completely trust and believe in Him.  The rest will follow.

Lets do it!    Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!