Thomas Made it Personal~

Greetings, blessed and loved children of God,

The Bible is our reliable guide, and every DEVO I send has at least one Bible verse to help strengthen our faith.  The last DEVO had a passage that promised us that God will never let us down, let us be pushed past our limit, and that He will always be there to help us come through it.

If only, right? Sometimes, when we are in the middle of a difficulty, we have a hard time believing.  But we are in good company.

Thomas was one of Jesus’ hand-picked disciples, and he witnessed, first hand, the miracles Christ performed. Yet, when told about Jesus’ resurrection he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in His hands, put my fingers in the nail holes, and stick my hand in His side, I won’t believe it” (John 20:25 The Message Version).”

He could have just said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  But no.  He was emphatic and specific and detailed as to what it would take to change his mind.  His words show there was no doubt about his doubt.  A week later, he would have to eat his words.

^“Eight days later…Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said,  ‘Peace to you.’ Then He focused His attention on Thomas. ‘Take your finger and examine My hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.’ Thomas responded, ‘My Lord and my God’” (John 20:26-28 The Message Version)!

Jesus does three very important things in this passage: (1) He focuses on Thomas. (2) He invites Thomas to do every single thing he said he needed to do to believe. (3) And He encourages Thomas to believe.

There are also three things Christ did not do: (1) He did not ignore Thomas. (2) He did not get mad at Thomas. (3) And He did not reject Thomas for failing to have faith.

The result of this meeting is that Thomas went from being slow to believe to being the first disciple to ever declare, “My Lord and my God.”  Others had said in the past that Christ was the Lord, or the King, but Thomas made it personal.  Later he would say in John 11:16, “Let's go so that we, too, can die with Jesus."

Jesus did not leave Thomas in his unbelief, and this resulted in Thomas being so strengthened in his faith that he would have done anything for Christ. Jesus will not leave us in any unbelief either.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You that You won’t take Your focus off of us even when we doubt.  You will not leave us in unbelief.  Rather, You will strengthen us because when we believe we have peace,  joy, and hope.  Like Thomas, we want to make it personal: You are our Lord! In Christ’s name, Amen~