Our most precious, valued possession and our greatest strength is derived from the same one that taught the sun where to stand in the morning. Reading today John 20:19-31, we are given examples of Jesus appearing to His disciples after His death on the cross. What a valued possession given to us as our Redeemer lives and His Spirit is in our heart!

On Sunday evening, the disciples were together full of fear because of the Jewish leaders. Jesus came in and said, “Peace be with you (v. 19)!” Thomas was not there with them but a week later, he was with them at the same house (v. 26). The doors were locked but Jesus came in and gave Thomas the chance to see Him. Jesus told Thomas to put his finger in the nail marks and put his hand into His pierced side.

For doubting Thomas, seeing and believing are related. With the way the world is today, many have doubts and need to see to believe. How can we doubt less? How can we believe without seeing?

I remember my senior year in high school playing baseball. The coach gave a speech before a tournament that weekend. It was about a golfer who was sick for several weeks. He laid in his bed playing rounds of golf in his mind. When he was able to physically play golf again, he went out to shoot his best round of golf ever because he had been practicing in his mind.

The golfer had found a way to practice playing golf and see himself making the best shots possible. Martin Luther King, Jr. said one time, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” In a similar way, the solution for any doubt we face is to step ahead with faith. To believe before we see with vision, so we receive instruction with the steps to take as we set out to accomplish God’s plan for us. 

Thomas doubted and we may too at times as we demand evidence and the ability to see things with our own eyes to verify in order to truly believe. Jesus knew Thomas’s needs and He knows our needs too! Although we are all broken, there is beauty endowed in our brokenness because of Jesus.

Jesus meets us in our doubt. He gives us what we need including assurance, purpose, and the help we need to believe. The arisen Christ changes everything because His forever presence through the Holy Spirit continually recreates us so we are prepared for each challenge we face.

This day we are recharged with sustaining faith because of Jesus. Faith gained on Sunday pulls us through on Monday so we can step ahead on Tuesday and the rest of the week. We have faith that help is on the way for healing, for anxiety, and for the removal of things blocking our progress. With this faith, our doubts subside because we know the Spirit will guide. We practice our faith with prayer, we listen, we trust, and we obey knowing that things will be more than okay. The days ahead will be amazing because of Jesus in our heart, and we pray in His name, amen.