Luke 7:2-5 - At that time the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some respected Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave. So they earnestly begged Jesus to help the man. “If anyone deserves your help, he does,” they said, “for he loves the Jewish people and even built a synagogue for us.”
Have you ever felt like you didn’t get something from God that you prayed for because you didn’t do enough to deserve it? Or maybe you’ve done the opposite. You brought a request to Him in prayer along with a list of achievements to remind Him why He needed to answer you. I’ve definitely done both of these in different periods of my life.
The respected Jewish elders in this passage also had the same mindset. They felt strongly that Jesus needed to help the Roman officer because of what he had done for the Jewish people. Jesus did help him but He didn’t do it because of his accomplishments but, rather, because of his faith. We read later in this chapter that the Roman officer sent his servants to tell Jesus to “just say the word from where you are and my servant will be healed.” It was his faith got Jesus’ attention! In fact, Jesus was so impressed that He publicly commended him for it (see Luke 7:9).
Are you looking for help from Jesus today? The amazing truth is that you don’t need to come to Him with your list of accomplishments. He’s not impressed by that. Maybe you have a list of failures in your life instead. You’ve probably messed up. That’s ok. You can still come to Him in faith. Remember that He hears you not because of your merits but because of His grace.
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus through whom we have access to You! Thank you that you hear us based on His merits and Your grace and not based on any of our own accomplishments.