Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” John 20:27
REFERENCE
John 20:24-29
God has an expectation of you; He expects you to believe Him, to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently. God expects you to rely on His promises, irrespective of your circumstances. He expects you to have faith. Faith, put simply, is your conscious, deliberate reliance on what God says even though it is unseen in the physical realm.
Jesus here rebuked Thomas for not believing what was spoken (or told him), though unseen, but would rather believe what he could see with his physical eyes. In God’s scheme, it is those who believe without seeing with their physical senses that are truly blessed; not the other way round.
Another observation from our text is this warning, “Do not be unbelieving.” The warning precedes the instruction, “but believing.” The reason is simple; to be forewarned is to be fore-armed. Unbelief comes with consequences, repercussions, and aftereffects. James 1:6-7 tells us that the unbelieving person should not imagine that s/he will receive anything from God. The unbelieving person is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything s/he thinks, feels and decides. In other words, to be a firm believer in what God says means God can rely on you. And to be unbelieving means God cannot rely on you to do His bidding. That’s not a good testimony.
Hebrews 11 is saturated with the report of men and women who believed God above all odds. They had faith, and for that God relied on them to play their roles in delivering His promise in their time, and thereafter obtained a good testimony. Like these men and women of old, God desires to use you in accomplishing His plans for your generation, but that can only happen if you can believe Him against the odds; if you would believe Him at all times. Can God trust and rely on you to accomplish His grand plan for such a time like this?
SCRIPTURE PHOTO
ADDITIONAL STUDY
Mark 9:17-27, Hebrews 11:1-6, &17-39
PRAYER
Dear Father, help my heart to be stable in You. Make me the kind of person You can rely on to execute Your plans on earth; I want to be a team player. Give me more grace to study Your Word and do what it says so my faith can be strengthened in Jesus name. Amen!
