Devotionals

---

John 20:
27 Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.
28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

If you are like me, you may have wondered about the disciple Thomas from time to time. I mean, how could anyone who had physically followed Jesus during His time on earth have doubted, even for a moment? Why would Jesus choose someone who was capable of such doubt to be one of His select few? I believe that in many ways, it was for the benefit of people just like you and I.
Too many times, I believe that like anger, doubt is one human response that we often categorize as failure or even as a sin. But one reason God may have had in allowing the incident that prompted Jesus’ own anger in the temple was so that the story would be included in the text of the gospels, to show us that anger in itself is entirely human. While Jesus was completely God, through this story, we can see that He was also, during His time with us on earth, just like us in many delightfully human ways. In the story of the moneychangers, we can imagine the outcome could have been very different. Jesus could have, in His infinite wisdom, struck down all of these evildoers. However, in Jesus actions, we see that He attacks the actions of those exchanging and selling, and not the people themselves. The story also serves to show us that during this life, there will be times of anger, but that the key to remaining like Him is not to sin in our anger. Moreover, it is this story that causes me to see something vaguely familiar about Thomas and his doubt.
Most of us would agree that since Jesus had personally chosen Thomas, his place as one of His disciples had been planned from the dawn of time, and therefore must have been for one or a multitude of specific purposes. It would have been hard for Jesus Himself to harbor doubt when He had seen the other side for Himself! He knew all, so how could He doubt Himself, His Father or the Father’s design?
We know that there were many others at the time who doubted Jesus was who He said He was, and many who, I am sure, doubted His ability to come back from death. However, the story in our Bible is not about any of those others. It is about Thomas. One of His own. Someone who had spent so much time with Him, walked along beside Him, worked for Him, just as you and I do as Christians. But this one was special- He had done all these things with Jesus in the physical sense! He had been in His awe-inspiring presence! At one time, he had been ready to follow the Savior to his own death! He had been in the same room with Jesus when he had heard the Master say He would rise again from the tomb, and yet, he doubted.
How often have I doubted? Countless times, I am a bit ashamed to say. I have claimed His promises for my own life, and then because they did not come in my timeframe, I have doubted whether they were coming at all. I have prayed, but because His answers did not look the way I had envisioned them, I doubted whether they were from Him or not. Because of hardships, I have even doubted His love for me.
No doubt, this story has a hidden lesson that we can take away and use in our own spiritual lives. Perhaps God wanted us to see that during this life, there will be days, even seasons of doubt. Maybe that is all right, depending on what we do about it. Thomas could have doubted the others’ testimonies of Jesus’ return, and walked away from his faith, deeming his time as a disciple over and done.
I believe one lesson we can take from Thomas is that when doubt comes, we should do just as he did- he did not get his answers from anyone else, but straight from the source: Jesus. He didn’t continually ask the others about it, he did not read a book and he didn’t wait for the movie version. The instant he was back in Jesus presence, as soon as he saw him, the moment he heard Him speak, he knew the truth.
We should follow Thomas’ lead. We should take our own doubts, when they arise, and go straight to the Father. Use them to start a conversation with our Savior in prayer. Use them to prompt a deeper search into the scriptures for the answers to the questions in our minds. Ultimately, use them to encourage others when they have their own doubts.
We should never allow them to grow so much in our minds that they take over our faith or become an excuse to quit the journey we are on with God! For when we, like Thomas, are once again in the presence of our Savior, He will reveal Himself to us in undeniable, concrete ways that will cause our faith to be restored and enhanced. He will work in our lives in such a way that the enemy will no longer be able to get a foothold in our lives using doubt.
In the end, when I think of Thomas’ place in the gospel of our Lord, I doubt Jesus would have had the story be told without him.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE