365 Days with God - Day 11

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 11, December 31, 2013

Readings: Psalm 10, Genesis 11, 1 Chronicles 11, Luke 7:1-35

Tomorrow begins a new year. And each new year, thousands, perhaps millions of people, create resolutions to do something different. To make their life something more. However, there is one who needs no resolutions. Nothing that He needs to be more committed to, no laps to run or diets to maintain. You see, if I make a resolution, it's to change things. It's a statement of faith.

But our resolutions don't stick around long, do they? My faith in a diet falters when I gain a pound. My faith in my ability to run a certain distance fails when I want to sleep in. Honestly, I don't have faith in myself. I can't stick to diets, I'm not good at exercising... so I just don't make any resolutions. That way I can't break them.

Honestly, that's why I don't ask things of Jesus either. I think he's like me. I don't have faith in him to do what I ask. Often, that's because what I ask is self-centered, but I don't see it that way. But what if I spent time seeking what he wanted? What if I asked for that? And what if I had faith that he would see it through? Jesus has an encounter with a man who does just that:

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue." And Jesus went with them. When he 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." And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. (Luke 7:1-10)

The centurion had faith. He knew that if Jesus had the supernatural power to heal, then he had the power to heal from a distance. He had true authority - so much more than just a title. He was not merely a prophet, a speaker of words. He spoke, and action was taken. Lives were changed. Orders were carried out. Demons fled, storms calmed, sickness healed - worlds made, universes expanded, the heavens and the earth are at his command.

Jesus needs no resolutions. He will do what he has set out to do. If I ask, and he is willing, it will happen. Nothing else in life has that certainty. There are too many variables, obstacles, unseen circumstances. So when I face challenges, troubles, misery in my life, and I return to God and His promises - I can know that He is faithful to them. That when everything else falls apart, He is in control. I must give up my illusion of control to his reality.