So I start thinking of ways I can help God answer my prayers. How can I help Jesus act in line with what I want him to do?
But when I looked more closely, the faith he responds to isn't necessarily an act of faith, it is a heart of faith. Like with the Centurion, he came to Jesus to ask him to heal his paralyzed servant. Jesus says, "I will go and heal him." And the Centurion is like, "No, don't even worry about coming all that way, just say the word and it will be done. Just like when I give orders to the soldiers under me, I know they will do it." (paraphrase)
And it says Jesus was astonished at his faith. "I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." He didn't do anything to help Jesus, he just asked for Jesus to speak a word and he knew it could be accomplished. And so Jesus says, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.' And his servant was healed at that very hour." Matt 8:13
One interesting thing is that the Centurion didn't see the result of his faith until he got back. All he had for his journey home was the words of Jesus, telling him that it would be done. But he didn't know how Jesus would do it, he didn't know when Jesus would do it, and he didn't the see result right away.... even though it was accomplished that very hour.
Sometimes when we pray, he is working it out at that very moment, but we don't see the result right away. We just have a promise and his word to hold onto. Maybe he is responding to a heart of faith, but we just can't see the how, when, or result right away.
Right after I studied this passage, I read this in a devotional called, "Streams in the Desert":
"I once believed that after I prayed, it was my responsibility to do everything in my power to bring about the answer. Yet God taught me a better way and showed me that self-effort always hinders His work. He revealed that when I prayed and had confident trust in Him for something, he simply wanted me to wait in an attitude of praise and do only what He told me."
With the Centurion, the only thing Jesus told him to do was to "Go!" To go back home and there he would see the answer. Jesus didn't tell him to do anything that would help him accomplish the healing. On that journey home he just had to trust it was being accomplished.
"Sitting still, doing nothing except trusting in the Lord causes a feeling of uncertainty and there is often a tremendous temptation to take the battle into our own hands... Spiritual forces cannot work while we are trusting earthly forces."
Sometimes the greater act of faith is to do nothing rather than to do something that we think will help God out. And maybe in our doing nothing to help him, it forms a greater heart of faith.
