Thoughts

1 After Jesus had finished teaching the people, he went to Capernaum. 2 In that town an army officer’s servant was sick and about to die. The officer liked this servant very much. 3 And when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish leaders to ask him to come and heal the servant.

4 The leaders went to Jesus and begged him to do something. They said, “This man deserves your help!5 He loves our nation and even built us a meeting place.”

6 So Jesus went with them.
When Jesus wasn’t far from the house, the officer sent some friends to tell him, “Lord, don’t go to any trouble for me! I am not good enough for you to come into my house.
7 And I am certainly not worthy to come to you. Just say the word, and my servant will get well. 8 I have officers who give orders to me, and I have soldiers who take orders from me. I can say to one of them, ‘Go!’ and he goes. I can say to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes. I can say to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he will do it.”

9 When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, “In all of Israel I’ve never found anyone with this much faith!”

10 The officer’s friends returned and found the servant well.

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Some thoughts on this passage I read today:

Seems like the leaders came to Jesus qualifying why this Roman officer deserved help. (ie helping make a building for them) And He went regardless of their heart situation. But when the officer’s servants came to give another message, it portrayed such respect. But what hit me most was the kingdom mindset the officer had and was living in. It even surprised Jesus! (according to the bible)

How often do I come to God with the mindset that I have to qualify everything…too often. WAY too often. I want that kingdom mentality that understands the power of His words and that if He declares something- then it will happen. I don’t have to worry about qualifying myself before God can move.

God, would you remind me of this passage and the talk You and I had about it. I want your truths to bury themselves deep in my heart.

Women’s group

I went to a women’s group at my church, and it felt good to be with the women I had grown to love last year while I was apart of it. Familiar faces and awkward ‘Get to know eachother’ games…it’s all apart of the experience. 🙂

Anyhoo, I wanted to write quickly about something we talked about. In the beginning of the book of James, he challenges us to consider it pure joy to go through trials of many kinds. James is my favorite book and has been for my whole life. I have read that before but didn’t know how to make it applicable to my life today. While it sounds simple, it’s hard to live out!

We talked about when we go through hard trials/times/seasons we have many choices. To be angry is a popular choice, and so is chosing to close down to the world around you. However, James tells us that a choice we should be making is JOY. We should choose to be joyful in the hard seasons of our lives to develop the character necessary to show Gods love to others.

There is always the other side of the coin and one could say that someone could choose joy too much and be disillusioned to the realities surrounding them. There are always two sides to everything and keeping it all in tension is the struggle called humanity…yes we/I will be closer to one side and the other another day, but what I think is most important is choosing to make the choice to take JOY and trudge through whatever season God has you/me in.