'when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him'

when Jesus was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him,

“Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.  Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.  For I too am a man set under authority, with 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.”

When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said,

“I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

the centurion's messengers made it clear he had a humble knowledge of Jesus' authority and power.  i wish i could've seen Jesus' face as he marveled at the man's faith and turned to the crowd to commend him.

let the goal of grace shape your view of what's gracious & good.

Provision of Grace

What often keeps us from recognizing the grace of God is that we long for a "different kind of grace." In the middle of difficulty we long for the grace of relief, while what God is bestowing us with is the grace of rescue.   We want the trial to end because we don't like the pain, while God wants the trial to remain in our lives until it has completed its work in us.

We don't rejoice in suffering like Paul did in Romans 5 because we would rather have a comfortable life than the character that difficulty can produce.

Yet God loves us too much to relent.   He didn’t shed the blood of his one and only Son to leave us to ourselves.  He didn’t reveal his truth to us only to have us lost and confused in the middle of our own story.   He didn’t give us the Holy Spirit to have us paralyzed and unable to deal with the significant struggles that come our way.

No, we have been and are being rescued by an activist Redeemer.   He doesn't get discouraged, he doesn't get tired, and he's never distracted.   He is intently focused on finishing what he started in us.

It's very important in darkness to recognize the grace of God.   If our definition of that grace is too narrow, and if what we expect that grace to offer is too limited, we'll be crying out for grace at the very time it's being showered on us.

It's quite possible to be the focus of divine love and rescue and at the same time be interpreting what's happening in our life in a very different way. . . What we have to do is let the goal of grace define our expectations of what grace looks like.

-Paul Tripp (January 28, 2011)

think hard, take heart.

the world tells you to get peace by not thinking too hard; christianity tells you that you get peace by thinking very hard— learning, grasping, rejoicing, and resting in the truths of the word of God.
 -tim keller