Have you ever done a trust fall?  The idea is that someone is behind you and is going to catch you.  You are supposed to lean back and fall and allow them to catch you.  It is an illustration of what we are called to do in our faith.  I was once doing this in a group and explained how it would work and asked for a volunteer.  I got a “catcher” and someone willing to fall.  We set it up and on the signal the person leaned and fell forward instead of back like they were supposed to obviously no one was there to catch them and they hit the ground.  It turned into a completely different illustration about placing your faith in the wrong direction but today I’d like to talk about properly placed faith.  Let’s look at a story about Jesus found in Luke 7.

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

The Centurion had tremendous faith in the power of Jesus to heal.  He put his trust in the right place and was rewarded for his faith.  To often I think we are like the student and place our faith in the wrong places.  We trust in our own strength.  We trust in our own resources.  We trust in comfort and security.  We trust in systems and companies.  None of these things are inherently bad but too often I think they take the place of the faith that we should place in Jesus alone.  The Centurion was a powerful man who had lots of different resources he could depend upon.  He knew that the true source of healing and strength was Jesus so that is where he turned to.  I pray that we would also all turn to the true source of healing and strength, Jesus!

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave