Surprise!

Mathew 8:10

                Have you ever had a surprise party before? That is something everyone should experience, maybe not a party per se, but definitely a surprise of some sort. When a person is surprised they are completely taken un guarded.  Many of the greatest generals in history used surprise tactics to win a war or gain territory.

                There is an interesting verse that I never picked up on until now. In Mathew 8:10, it says that Jesus was taken by surprise at someone’s faith. This guy was a military officer and he surprised Jesus. He surpassed Jesus’s expectations, what he did was unexpected by the Son of God. How powerful is that? How cool is that? Maybe you are reading this today and your reply is: “So what?”

                Let me try to put it in better perspective for you. Imagine if you did something that surprised God. This guy in Mathew 8 had so much faith in Jesus. The bible does not state why he had all this faith, but it took Jesus by surprise that he did. Jesus even said that there is no man in Israel with this amount of faith. Wouldn’t it be cool to surprise God in some area? I used to do this servant program in Virginia called Doulous. We would pay these people to put us to work and teach us how to serve others. When I would serve, there would be a peculiar result. Every time I helped someone, it would seem that the next day God would out do me. He would serve me or my friends in an even better way. For example, one week we served a church and really gave it all. That week I cleaned out a septic tank, toilets, cut weeds, etc. I thought I was doing well for God. Then at the end of the week, God would show up in our group and outdid our actions. One time he encouraged the pastors of the church we were helping to come wash our feet. THE PASTORS of the church came to wash our feet.  The whole week we were sweating and smelly! Everyone in my group was crying out their eyes because they knew it was all God. I was not crying but laughing. I just found it funny that no matter how hard I tried, God always out did me. I could not surprise him.

                What I want to challenge you with today is to try to surprise God. Do something that you would never do for God. Maybe you should suddenly rent a pressure cleaner and hose down your neighbor’s house? It sounds like a cheesy experiment because it seems like God knows all anyway. This little game is something that I played and honestly it was really fun. It was also cool to see God’s reaction to it. So I dare you, try to surprise God. Let’s see if you can do better than me.