Good morning! Let me first apologize to all my devotion readers for a two-week absence from posting daily devotions. We have been on vacation the last two weeks to see family and attend a relative’s wedding in the midwest. It was an enjoyable time away…but now back to a more regular rhythm again!
Can you believe it?
We often use this phrase when we see or witness something that is seemingly beyond the normal. Perhaps we believe it because we witness it, but the person to whom we relate the event is a bit skeptical. We may even qualify these events with the phrase, “I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw it!”
Stories that fit these categories perhaps an account of the fish that “got away.” Or perhaps a sports team come back late in the game that defied the odds of coming out with a win. Perhaps it’s an unexpected promotion or job offer. These events may be hard to believe, but because we experienced or trust the source. We believe it.
The Apostle John witnessed many things that the disciples looked at each other and said in Aramaic, “Can you believe it?” Perhaps one would respond, “I wouldn’t believe it except I saw it.”
This attitude is easy to transfer to more important things…matters of life and death…eternal life and death.
In discussions of heaven or hell, people ask, “Do you believe they are real?”
In matters of Jesus and being the only way to heaven, people surmise, “Do you really believe he is the only way to heaven?”
In asking about the Bible as the inspired word of God, “Really, do you believe that?”
Many aspects of faith challenge our hearts and minds because we weren’t there to see everything the Bible talks about…in fact we were not first-hand witness of any of the events that are recorded in the Bible.
So can you believe it?
The Apostle John was challenged by people asking the same question. Can you believe it? Can you believe Jesus is the Messiah? Can you believe he is real? Can you believe he is the Son of God? Can you believe he accomplished all for eternal life?
The Apostle John didn’t give a dissertation on the doctrine of Christ, although he could have. Rather he simply shared what convinced him that Jesus was the Christ, that he was the Son of God and eternal life came through him.
What was that? Signs.
Miracles. Things that only Jesus as the Son of God could do. Change water into wine. Heal from a distance. Make the lame walk. Feed 5000 with minimal food. Raise the dead.
John chose seven miracles to record in his Gospel with one key purpose:
To answer the question, “Can you believe it?” The Apostle John wrote:
John 20:30 Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Apply: What questions about Jesus do you have? Begin reading the Gospel of John. See and hear the things John records as if you were there first-hand. Do they build confidence and trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, your Savior.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for revealing who you are and what you’ve done to John and the other Apostles so that we too might have certainty that you are the Christ, the Son of God and by believing, we may have life in his name. AMEN.