Life is lived as part irony and part contradiction.  While we often think of ourselves as individuals, the irony is we often prefer the buddy system.  What we’d like is for others to share in the same belief system as we do.  And we take comfort in knowing that we are a part of a group that has the same goals and ideas.  It prevents a lot of hassling about particulars that make us different. Nothing is truer than that which invites us to be on our journey with God.  Almost every multi-faith event invites us to consider those places in our understanding of God where we are alike rather than those places where we are different.  In fact, there is an organization called “Churches United In Christ” whose core mission is to visibly express Christian unity and actively work to erase racism as a barrier within the church and society.  Yet, in what could be described as the biggest disagreement between Christ and one of his disciples, the issue revolved around those differences in how each of us understood our relationship to God and whether we would be willing to go it alone with God and God’s plan or whether we would go it alone on our own.  Our differences are focused on our view of the world how we believe it should work out.  That is perhaps why we seek companionship on our journey.  We’d like to know that we aren’t the only one who sees the world from our perspective.  The difference is amplified when our perspective differs from God’s perspective.  In that regard, we are invited to drop the buddy system and go it alone with God to ensure that we are working with God and not against God.  Answering the question, “Who is Christ to us?”, goes a long way toward helping us to decide whether we will go it alone on our own, or whether we will choose to go it alone with God even when it is unpopular or unconventional.

• When did it become clear to you who Jesus was and that you would follow him?
• What preconceived ideas about God did you have to reject in order to believe Jesus is the Savior?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, when faced with loyalty to friends or my own limited understanding and loyalty to you, give me the courage to face going it alone with you rather than without you.

         What does it take for one to recognize their status before the Lord?  Certainly, faith is one component.  One must believe that God is and that God is able to do more than they are able to do.  It acknowledges our powerlessness before God.  And there is humility — recognizing our unworthiness to stand before the one who is our Savior and Redeemer justifying ourselves as having done something for which we are owed a repayment.  But that alone is not enough to unleash the unlimited grace of God.  There is something else which we must factor in.  And that is God’s acknowledgment of who we are and what we are and why we are.  It is God’s acknowledgment that our faith has value — that our faith, and our humility can move the needle of God’s unlimited grace to do miraculous things in our lives.

         The question we must ask is, “Are we past the point of amazing God with our faith?”  Have we grown so cold to what God is able to do that by our lack of faith, we actually shut down the availability of God’s unlimited grace in our own lives?  It seems like a question or two that raises doubt about what we actually believe.  But what Jesus was more aware of was this centurion’s awareness of God’s power, God’s presence, and God’s unlimited ability to do what is asked without having to be present on the scene to perform a miracle.

         God’s unlimited grace can be set free to activate our lives by the unwavering faith that Christ can do whatever we ask, whenever we ask it if we come to Christ in full faith, believing and not doubting, trusting and not suspicious, humble and not arrogant — difficult things to do when our world teaches us to be distrustful, prideful, and suspicious of everything.  The centurion believed in full faith and God’s unlimited grace became available to him.  That same grace is still available to us.

• Have you ever experienced a miracle or known someone who has because they had full faith that what they asked for, God would deliver?
• How does this attitude of faith conflict with the idea that we receive grace based on God’s will?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, teach me to live my life with full faith — believing, trusting, and humble — that You still answer prayers according to our faith and Your will.

         Imagine the agony and embarrassment of being ostracized — cut off from the community of family and friends for 12 years.  Imagine the confinement one must feel when they are forced to go through life alone.  It must have been an overwhelming part of life that forced them to reach out and touch the fabric that the Lord was wearing, hoping for and needing a miracle.  Had standard rules applied, she would have had to present herself to the priests for seven days to be declared healed and clean.  But Jesus removed the barriers that prevented her from living a full life and set her free that very moment.

         It must have been a marvelous day for that woman to have received the unlimited grace of her God — a grace that put her back within the life of her community, her family, her worship place, her world.  It must have been a miraculous experience to know that she didn’t have to pay one more doctor one more denarius for help they were unable to provide.  And yet, it was the unlimited grace of God flowing through Jesus Christ which come to her without price through God’s generous mercy.  God held nothing back from someone who was desperate for God’s mercy and had the faith to believe that what she needed was available in Jesus Christ.

         Perhaps there’s a lesson for all of us in her story — a lesson which teaches us that God’s grace is unlimited to those who have faith, and trust that God is able to do all things while bringing healing to our tortured and battered souls.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful Christ, grant me the faith to trust in Your unlimited grace for all things that can make me whole again.