Not long after the fall of the Iron Curtain, I traveled to Ukraine with a Christian ministry. One evening, I met with two college students who peppered me with questions about faith and God. I was struck by their open and earnest searching, because they had lived for years under a communist regime in which God and religion were outlawed. They weren’t looking for easy answers, but simply wanted to figure out what they believed.
It’s likely this encounter has stuck with me because I often operate the opposite way—with a skeptical rather than seeking posture. I can be overly cautious, slow to commit, and prone to poke holes in a belief wherever I possibly can.
Perhaps Thomas was somewhat similar. After Jesus’ resurrection, the Savior met with His disciples, but Thomas wasn’t there. When the disciples excitedly told the skeptical disciple about their encounter, Thomas dismissed the story. “I won’t believe it,” he insisted, “unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side” (John 20:25).
It’s unfortunate we’ve saddled the disciple with the name “doubting Thomas,” for apparently Jesus was little bothered by Thomas’ suspicion. Jesus came to him, offering His wounds for him to investigate. Face to face with his friend and teacher, the skeptic fell to his knees. “My Lord and my God!” he exclaimed (John 20:28).
Perhaps it would have been better if Thomas had been able to take his friends’ words without requiring evidence, but I’m struck by Jesus’ kindness. He came to Thomas, loving him even in his doubt. None of us has to leap very far to find ourselves in Jesus’ open arms. We have only to say yes to the love He offers to us.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Judges 16:1-21
More:
Read Jude 1:22 and consider the mercy God has shown to you even when doubt has caused your faith to waver.
Next:
What doubt about God is most persistent in your thoughts? How do you respond to it, and how do you think Jesus responds to you and your doubting ways?
mordekhaij on March 13, 2017 at 2:44 am
please anyone help me with your pray, i need you cause i am doubting his Love right now, i cannot see HIS love again. i have blinded with heart-breaked from this world. please pray for me.
envirotact on March 13, 2017 at 10:03 am
Whenever I doubt God’s love for me, I watch or remember Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ”. You absolutely cannot watch the brutality that Christ suffered on your behalf and ever doubt His love for you. I see the Roman soldiers bent over and exhausted from whipping Him mercilessly – and I see Satan in the crowd, smiling and egging them on. And I see Jesus, beaten beyond recognition on His back – then they turn Him over and whip His front. Jesus loves you my friend.
Winn Collier on March 13, 2017 at 12:12 pm
God of unending love, please be near to mordekhaij. Send your peace, your hope, your mercy and kindness. Amen.
crossman61 on March 13, 2017 at 1:43 pm
mordekhaij I will be praying for you , that God will reveal His love to you , or He will change your perspective on how you to see His Love !!
Gary Shultz on March 13, 2017 at 5:43 am
Mordekhij, a prayer for you, yes. I pray you may see the power of God’s love.
don777 on March 13, 2017 at 5:59 am
Dear Jesus we thank You that you even allow us to bring you any and all request. It is amazing that you allow us in you presence. We want to lay all our request for mardekhaij at your feet, Please Oh Lord we ask you to touch him in only the way you can deep in his soul, that You give him eyes & ears to see & hear You and Your Awesome Love. You are God & only You know how & where to Bless him. We know by Your Word & Holy Spirit of Truth. Please Oh Lord bring Your Truths alive in his life & touch his soul that he would know that he would know of your Awesome Love. I pray also Oh Lord please give him the gift of discernment. We Pray this in the Name of Jesus Amen
Gary Shultz on March 13, 2017 at 6:03 am
Hi Winn: I would have to take your path on this one. I guess it all surrounds the what’s and why’s of the skeptic. If we are a believer we are asked to “test” the spirits. I don’t think God minds that too much either, “taste and see” that the Lord is good. God will offer enough, as He did for Thomas, if honesty is what is being sought. If it is just a stall tactic or excuse, Jesus said of the rich man, even if someone returned from the dead they would still not listen. So, the heart condition is important, and I can’t see that, so we continue to live out our lives in the event we are asked to give an account of our faith…..The doubting part, like Thomas, he probably didn’t do that again. As we grow along in the life God has for us, I hope most of the doubts get painted over until we see just the color of faith. Thanks Winn
Winn Collier on March 13, 2017 at 12:14 pm
yes, the motives matter. Thankfully there’s even grace for us as we muddle through and sort out our motives.
Tom Kopper on March 13, 2017 at 10:33 am
I always counter this matter of “doubting Thomas”.
Sunday, first it was the lady’s who went to the tomb “taking spicies of which they prepaired.” When they got there the stone had been rolled back, the tomb was empty. The angels there told them to go back and tell the disciples what they saw. They all went to the tomb
and the disciples saw it was empty, ( first time).
Then they all left and went back to the room except, Mary Magdalene who was still there crying when Jesus showed Himself to her. Then in excitement she went back to
tell them that she had seen the Lord, (second time).
And, ” On the evening of that first, (same), day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders,
Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”, (third time).
They were all talking together about this and Thomas wasn’t even with them.
Later Thomas was told and and later was with the disciples when Jesus showed Himself to him.
So, I continually ask who doubted more? I always wonder who, why and when this point of doubting Thomas was ever started.
crossman61 on March 13, 2017 at 2:15 pm
Thank you Winn Collier, For the word today !!! That’s a good point also that Tom Kopper is saying too.
minkjh on March 13, 2017 at 2:21 pm
Mike: This incident involving Thomas can really get us reflecting on the depth of our faith. Permit me to share a selection from a series I put together for my home congregation during Lent a few years ago. Skepticism is prevalent but a little different perspective on how and why Jesus followed the course of action he chose in these three situations to transform doubt into assurance.
Seeing is…Believing…is Seeing
“Will you never believe in me unless you (people) see miraculous signs and wonders?’” (Jesus responding to a government official’s plea to keep his son from dying)
“Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe? (Jesus responding to Martha’s objection to open the tomb of her brother Lazarus)
“Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” (Jesus responding to Thomas’ need for visible proof of the resurrected Christ)
You’ve got to admit while studying these three distinct episodes from John’s gospel that at times Jesus can appear to be harsh and confrontational, even to those who plead, protest, or doubt. Each of the three had very real concerns at the moment. But Jesus chose to go beyond the superficiality of these situations, instead looking to cultivate a deeper, more profound faith in their lives and the lives of those who witnessed the events. He wanted to transform their frail words of belief into confident trust in the power of God working in them and through them.
For the father of the gravely ill child hoping for a miracle, Jesus mercifully granted the request, but did so on his terms and not the father’s. The healing was a wonderful gift, but the greater gift was giving the father and those at the scene the opportunity to grow their faith despite the fact that Jesus did not go to the child and heal him. For Martha and those unknowingly about to be eye-witnesses to Jesus’ greatest miracle, it was a matter of extending their faith and trust in two distinct ways- first, displaying what God could accomplish through divine effort in bringing Lazarus back to life, and second, what God could accomplish through human effort when they themselves rolled away the stone and unbound the burial shroud from Lazarus. With Thomas, the skepticism produced in part by his absence a week earlier when Jesus appeared to the other disciples was put to rest, not by his comrades’ testimony of seeing and believing the risen Christ, but by the Lord’s gentle rebuke inviting Thomas to reach out, touch, and believe. Only then does Jesus extend his blessing to the one who needed physical proof.
We who are removed some twenty centuries from these events have the opportunity to read and meditate prayerfully about them and ponder how we would have responded. But the fact that we were not eyewitnesses to them should not hinder our faith nor discount our ability to accept and believe that Jesus shared our sorrows, took our burdens upon himself, and then conquered death to gain the ultimate victory over sin.
Prayer Focus: Meditate on II Corinthians 5:7
Next week: That They May All Be One
hsnpoor on March 16, 2017 at 3:40 pm
Wonderful devotion followed by some really thought provoking and wonderful comments and observations. I’m playing catch up this week and just wanted to add that what struck me was how Winn contrasted his skepticism to his Ukranian friends open & searching attitude. I wonder if that difference is the result of the two very different governmental regimes each were living under? I don’t have an answer to that, I just read and my mind made me wander about that.