"Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29 NKJV
One of the things the devil is likely to do to us, is cause us to doubt. We see him trying to tempt and confuse Jesus when He was in the wilderness. He thought Because Jesus was tired, worn out and hungry, he could get Jesus to believe him and bow to Him; but Jesus was having none of it. Again, the serpent, who represented the devil, caused Eve to doubt in the Garden of Eden, 'You shall not surely die.' Genesis 3:4. If he is given an inch he will take a mile, you better believe it. Faith is how God wants us to live. We can't see Him but we believe He is here, in our hearts. This is faith. To doubt that, is to lose our way completely.
Thomas, who was also known as Didymus - the twin, because of his uncanny resemblance to Jesus, was a doubter. We see him in action in this chapter. The others had seen Jesus following His crucifixion - He had appeared to them. They excitedly tried to tell Thomas about it all, but he was not having it, 'Unless I see in His hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.' Thomas had to see it before he would accept it. A lot of us are like this. We want to know that it is safe before we take a step of faith. Some give out fleeces, 'Lord, if you want me to do this, please let someone knock on my door and tell me this. Also let them provide me with financial support too.'
God rarely responds to such things. He has told us that, 'We walk by faith not by sight'. 2 Corinthians 5:7. This means that we look through the eyes of faith as we discussed yesterday. Jesus reinforced this when He later showed up to Thomas, one of the few times that He did respond to such a request. He told him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen Me and yet have believed.' Note that second part, 'Blessed are those who have not seen Me and yet have believed.' This is you and I. Very few of us have actually seen Jesus and yet we trust Him; we believe in Him and that is great. Yet, why do we still have doubts about certain things.?
Some may answer this by saying, 'Because we are only human, we're doing the best we can do.' And that is a good answer. Yet Jesus wants more. He wants you and I to have a certainty that He will do what we ask and give us what we need each day. I'm not saying here that if we believe and ask Him to allow us to win the Lottery, He will do this. That is ridiculous and selfish. I'm talking here of our needs for each day. For Him to protect us and walk with us wherever we go. Take for instance, the centurion who came to Jesus in Matthew 8:5-10. He told Jesus that his servant was very ill. Jesus responded by telling him that He would go with him and heal him. The centurion said, 'Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be healed.' The centurion's faith astounded Jesus, He had not seen such faith in all of Israel.
And this is the faith that Jesus wants from each of us. To have the confidence, that certainty that Jesus will take care of us, watch over us and supply our needs.
He wants us to be blessed.
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
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