Can God Be Astonished?

Would you like to have the kind of faith that astonishes God? Is it even possible to have astonishing faith? After all, God who created all things, include you and me, would be hard to astonish I would imagine.

Getting a prayer of faith answered by God isn’t what validates astonishing faith. Astonishing faith is validated when God see’s the belief of your heart that He can do anything. In other words, you completely believe God can do.

In Luke 7:1-10 the Bible tells the story of the healing of the Centurion’s servant. The Centurion has a servant who was sick, and he loved and cared for his servant greatly. Understanding how authority worked, due to his military career, he called for Jesus to heal his servant with perfect confidence.

He sends some Jewish elders to ask Jesus to rescue his servant from death. When they approach Jesus, they begged him eagerly. At this point,  there is no indication of astonishment by Jesus.  They are asking for Him to do something, but faith doesn’t seem to be the motive they are using to move Him to answer.

Instead, they appeal to what the Centurion has done for the Jewish people. It almost like they are using the old appeal and thought of, “He has done good things for us; would you now return the favor and answer his prayer?”

Regardless, Jesus goes with them anyway. As He nears the house, the centurion sent friends to meet Jesus and give Him another message. The message was, “Master, don’t trouble yourself. I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof. That’s why I didn’t think myself worthy to come to you in person. But-just say the word, and my slave will be healed.”

At this point,  Jesus was astonished at what He had just heard. One theologian said, “Jesus is astonished at the second message, and we are astonished at His astonishment! Normally in the gospels Jesus does and says things that surprise people; this is one of the few places where Jesus himself is surprised.”

That’s right! Jesus can be astonished at your faith in Him. You don’t need a big background of religious facts in your faith bag to give to Jesus to try and impress Him when you ask. You just need to believe He CAN! You must believe He is the sovereign one and Lord of heaven and earth. The centurion had grasped what many of the Jews had missed, the one true God was present, personal and active in Jesus and was walking among them.

Jesus is still walking among us today. He is still active among us today, and He lives on the inside of you. Ask Him in faith without regard for a yes, no or a maybe answer, and you will astonish Him, or at least come close trying.  God reserves the right to answer in any way He wants, but you should never hesitate to ask.

Now go and try to astonish God with your faith today.

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