Friday 25 Jul 2014

July 25: John 20:24-29

Key Verse: John 20:28
Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Devotion:
It was not just Mary who had a hard time believing that Jesus had actually risen from the dead; even though Christ had told them that this is what was going to happen, they still had a hard time believing. Most of the disciples seemed to have accepted the fact by this stage in John’s account of events, but Thomas still had his doubts and was not willing to take anyone else’s word until he saw Christ himself!

I’m sure all of the disciples would have had doubts just as we have our doubts, but Thomas was the one that was willing to admit that he had a problem. Jesus offered His body to Thomas to touch and then for the other disciples He took food and ate as a physical way of showing that He was real! It was probably those facts together which finally made them all believe in the resurrection power of Christ and it is the account that each of them writes about that we should believe too. Each disciple wrote down his own words for us to be able to read later on and to believe because they were there as our eye witnesses to the events!

Each of the events has been written down for us to know Christ as being real and being our Messiah who was able to rise from the dead. These events after the fact give us reason to believe and show us that doubts are real and we should not be afraid of them. Jesus wants us to confront our doubts and to lift them up to Him so that He can give us reason not to doubt. He gave Thomas what he needed and He gave the other disciples what they needed; for the same reason He will give us the proof that we need to believe and to cast our doubts aside as well!

Trust and obey Christ because He wants us to trust in Him. That first step that we take will give us the strength to move mountains with our faith; words which Christ has given to the disciples showing that it is not our own strength that will get us through but the strength that Christ and the Holy Spirit will give us that gets us through the doubts. Allow God to guide you through your doubts and make you stronger through confronting them.

Points to Ponder:
What things do you doubt?

Are you willing to give those doubts to Christ?