This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of Stormproof – Downpours of Doubt (CLICK HERE)
Are you one that has to “see it to believe it?”
Perhaps this depends on the source of the information that you receive. With the plethora of reels on social media, perhaps some are so far out that you think to yourself, “I’d have to see that to believe it.” If there is a trend in your child to not doing very well on their homework and they come home and announce they got 100% on an exam, you might say, “Let me see it before I believe it.”
Matters of faith also lead us to at times desire to “see it to believe it.”
We’d love to have a first hand glimpse at God creating the world.
Wouldn’t it be easier to believe that the Bible is truly God’s word if you could see God working through an individual to write the words that are in the Bible.
Perhaps it would be easier to believe that Jesus was the Son of God if you could have actually seen him alive.
We wouldn’t be the only person who wanted to see something before believing it. In fact, one of the 12 closest followers of Jesus had to “see it to believe it.” His name was Thomas.
He didn’t trust the other 10 disciples.
He didn’t trust the report of the women.
He didn’t even trust the words Jesus had predicted on multiple occasions prior to his death and resurrection.
He wouldn’t believe until he saw.
Thomas was one that Jesus chose to bring the message of the Gospel to the world. This message hinged on the certainty that Jesus really did rise from the dead. Thomas would be ineffective as a proclaimer of the Gospel if he had doubts about Jesus’ resurrection.
So Jesus turned the doubts into certainty by appearing to Thomas. The Apostle John wrote:
John 20:24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed;blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus’ heart is the same for us. The doubts we might have about him he desires to replace with certainty. We can be thankful that Thomas had doubts. Jesus stepped into those doubts so Thomas could have certainty and us through Thomas have the same certainty. Jesus affirmed his resurrection to those that could see him so that everyone who cannot see Jesus would have the same certainty and believe without seeing.
This is how God’s Spirit works.
He changes our need to see to believe to believe without seeing.
But it’s not a blind faith, it is a faith that is based on the facts of those who saw him.
Stop doubting and believe!
Apply: What doubts do you have? Is there someone in the Bible that had the same doubt? How did the Lord change the doubt into certainty. He can do the same for you!
Prayer: Lord, thank you for loving me enough to give me many reasons to believe you…even though I haven’t seen you. AMEN