“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me,
even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. But
Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said
unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And
after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came
Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
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.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” —John 20:21–27, 29
KJV
It is more blessed to have not seen and believe… but Jesus still comes.
“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It
is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them,
saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And
when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to
Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink,
he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand,
and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt?” —Matthew 14:25–31 KJV
It is always better to have faith, but even when you begin to sink in doubt, Jesus
will still catch you.
Somewhere along the way, many of us forgot about who Jesus is. We can get so
focused on the dos and don’ts of the Bible. We spend our focus on the “what” in
the Bible. We use the Bible as a self-help book, trying to fix all the unlovely things
about ourselves and to grow ourselves. We worship Jesus and the Father every
day, but then we turn around and look in the mirror. We listen to sermons on
“how” we can attain the model life. Sadly, we started believing that our failures
prevented Jesus from rescuing us. With the focus on us and “what” we need to do
and “how” we need to do it to get what Jesus paid such a price to give us; then
we slip into this mindset:
“I wouldn’t have to deal with the problems I am dealing with if I would
have had more faith and been more faithful.”
Honestly, this mindset in and of itself is not a bad one. It can spur us on to lean on
Jesus to get the grace we need and begin again. However, when you stay in this
mindset too long, Satan will see to it that you go one step further. You’ll end up in
condemnation before the day is over, and you’ll begin to lay down and “sleep in
the bed that you made.”
You’ve forgotten that our own salvation was not a bed we made, but one that
Jesus made for us. Jesus showed us the way to live a blessed life, but even when
we don’t get everything right, Jesus shows up anyways. Your decisions in life, as a
Christian, can affect all manner of change, but none of those decisions can
separate Jesus from you; good or bad, Jesus still comes. Jesus still stretches out
His hand to rescue you. Jesus still loves you:
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” —Romans 8:38–39 KJV
You haven’t deserved deliverance, but deliverance still comes as a Christian.
Breathe a sigh of relief, and forget for a moment all the “what’s” and “how’s,”
and remember WHOM you have believed in. Thomas and Peter both took their
eyes off of Jesus and forgot what manner of man He was. Jesus reminded them:
He is the kind of man who shows up anyways when they make all of the wrong
decisions.
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