affairs. Whether the matter be large or small, “in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). Secondly, it will be fascinating to look at the steps in the development of this man’s growing faith, for faith is the keystone of successful prayer. This man had a rather guarded hope that Christ could do something for his son, because of what he had heard. How small a degree of faith but it was the mustard seed that motivated him to search for Christ. Verse 48 points out that his was not a satis factory faith. When he was in the great presence of the Lord, his faith grew until he was willing to return to his home without the Lord when He said, “Go thy way, thy son liveth.” Do not forget that this nobleman could have compelled Jesus to go with him, but he did not—he was convinced. His faith had now grown to conviction out of which was born a definite act of obedience to the words of Christ for the Scripture says, “and he went his way.” The final step in his growth of faith takes place when he arrives home and finds that his son is healed. His very enthusiasm was sufficient to bring about the conversion of his entire house hold for we read, “. . . himself believed, •and his whole house.” This resulted in the fact of this man coming to believe in everything Christ said or claimed to be. Now 1. is a pointed question for you, reader: Is your faith a growing faith? Does it produce obedience to the commands of Christ? This is real faith for it neither loses its enthusiasm nor becomes static! In the third consideration I would like to call your attention to Christ’s concern—this is both significant and important in His dealings with men. Doesn’t His answer to the nobleman seem strange to you? Here this dis traught and broken hearted man had come to the Lord Jesus who, in address
ing not only the nobleman but the entire crowd, said “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye w ill not believe.” In order to understand this we must look at a similar situation where Jesus “did not commit himself to them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man” (John 2:24, 25). Jesus knew the heart of this man and was more concerned with his heart for the moment. He had every inten tion of healing the man’s son, but His chief concern was that of revealing to the man the inadequacy of his own heart and motive. And reading with sharper searching we find that He gave the man a chance to believe right then without a sign upon which to justify his faith. Now do you see a lesson here? Jesus Christ is concerned with your need, and your petition. The nobleman’s son was healed gloriously. But notice that Christ did not do it m the way ex pected. The nobleman had petitioned that the Lord come to his house. But Jesus said, “Go thy way, thy son liv- eth.” Another lesson arises high above the recounting of this simple fact related —it is that we are all too prone to tell the Lord how we want Him to answer our prayers! But has not God told us that His ways are not our ways, and that His thoughts are not our thoughts? How much better it is that we tell Him our simple or urgent needs and then react, as did this nobleman, for our text says that he “believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.” One thought more. Jesus did not have to go to the bedside of the dying lad— He was thirty miles away at Cana, but when He spoke distance meant abso lutely nothing. How powerful and how limitless is our God! Truly, “His love hath no limit, His grace hath no meas ure, His power hath no boundary known to men, but out of His infinite riches in glory He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.” 14
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