Encouragement

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“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” Psalms 27:13

We all know that seeing is believing. Yet, one of the strongest statements uttered by the Risen Lord and which has become a decree unto this day is; “Blessed are those who have not seen but yet have believed.” John 20:29
We like to go by the evidence of our eyes. Yet, when the eyes see, they miss so much and what the eyes cannot see but perceive in the heart is what matters more.

It is the same with love. Do we need to hear the words spoken aloud to believe or is it far more beautiful when hearts recognize the words of love and believe whole heartedly in their souls? The strength of love lies in believing without seeing.
People can love each other for a lifetime even when they are not able to see one another, their love remains powerful solely on the basis of the belief of love, to know that the love for each other exists strongly and will do so always.

There are times when we feel the Lord is far away from us when we call out to Him. We cannot see Him. But the Lord clarifies this in Isaiah 54:8; “I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness I have taken you back.”
We see after the resurrection, how the Lord appears to the apostles in spite of the doors being shut. They not only behold His face but also the marks left by His wounds on the cross. As we know, Thomas not being present at that time refused to believe unless He saw Jesus for himself and placed His hands in His wounds and side.

A week later the Lord appears to them again when Thomas is present and tells him;
“Doubt no longer but believe.” John 20:27. We wonder at Thomas’s actions, He was so close to the Lord and yet he doubted. The same happens sometimes in life, people who are so close and familiar with each other suddenly become strangers overnight and come back to the starting point in spite of having known each other for so long.

It is said that when the Lord closes a door, He opens a window but we look for so long at the closed door that we do not see the open window.
Today the Lord is inviting us to walk through closed doors just as He did after He was raised to life. His spirit dwelling within us can only give us the strength to accomplish this. A closed door could be any challenge in life but when we are ready to walk through this door, when we willingly accept the Lord’s will in our lives to face the trials and accept the cross, the Lord turns the tide in our favor and sends a greater blessing upon us.

When we truly believe deep down in our hearts, we have already won the race. When Peter believed that The Lord was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Lord opened his eyes that it was not flesh and blood that gave him this disclosure but the spirit of the Father in heaven which had revealed this truth to Him.
We too believe to this day because the spirit has affirmed this beautiful revelation in our lives at the time of our baptism when we are anointed. We are marked forever with the legacy of heaven.

When we are unable to say the words, we earnestly hope that the words told by the heart can be listened to and manifested. When we are wary to approach him, the Lord meets us half-way down the road. He makes it easier for us to express ourselves. There is a beautiful saying that it is so lucky to have someone in our life who can make us smile even when they are not around. The Lord does something similar for each of us every day, He fills us with a lasting joy and a smile in our hearts because we have believed without seeing Him and we are proud to belong to this generation who can distinctively mean every word recited in the Creed.

Maria Franco

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