A story is told in Luke 7:1-10 of a man whose faith marveled Jesus. A Roman Centurion, whose slave whom he highly regarded, was on the verge of death. The Centurion asked Jesus to just speak a word, and his slave would be healed. He was confident that just a word from Jesus WILL not MAY heal his servant.
When Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.”
So, what really is faith? I once saw a very interesting definition of faith: “Believing something is so, even when it is not so, that it might be so, simply because God said so.”
One of my husband’s favorite movies is “Faith Like Potatoes.” In this movie, a farmer is led by God to grow potatoes even though there were warnings against planting unless one had an irrigation system in place because of drought. The farmer chooses to have faith in God and goes ahead to plant potatoes. If you know anything about potatoes, then you know they grow underground and cannot be seen until harvest. When harvest time came, the farmer reaped bountifully, regardless of there being no visible assurance through the season.
The farmer believed there would be a harvest, even when there were no signs, simply because God said so. Now that is faith!
The Bible, in Hebrews, defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith essentially demonstrated Jesus’ ability to heal to the Centurion’s ‘inner eye,’ a reality that his physical eye could not see at the time. It firmly persuaded him that Jesus was able to do just what He said He would.
In reality, though, it’s one thing to have head-knowledge of faith and another thing to actually have faith. So how do we get this faith, as the Centurion did? How do we get to the point of strongly believing that God will perform all that He has promised us in His word?
Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I pray that you and I will delve deep into this word, that we will find it sweeter than honey as described by the Psalmist. That way, our faith will be built, and we will be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is able to do just what He says He will and that He will surely fulfill every promise He makes!