Monday, February 01, 2010

Anxiety kills faith

This week, I want us to imagine that we were there with the disciples after the Lord was crucified.

Mary came running to us, full of excitement, and shouted, "He is alive, Jesus is alive. I saw Him with my own eyes." (John 20:18).

All the disciples were skeptical and perhaps even thought that Mary was mad.

Then Jesus appeared before them. By this time they were convinced that indeed, He had risen. Then came Thomas who was not with the rest when the Lord appeared. They swore to him that they had seen the Lord, risen and alive. He said that he would not believe unless he puts his finger on the Lord's nail-marked hands. (John 20:25).

Thomas had seen Jesus performed miracles when He was alive. Still, he did not possess the faith to believe what the Lord had told him earlier about His resurrection.

Finally, when the Lord graciously showed Thomas His nail-scared hands, Thomas proclaimed that he truly believe. And the Lord made a big statement on faith. He said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed." (John 20:29).

Hey, the Lord is talking about you and me!

It takes faith to believe what we have not seen. After all, " ... faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb 11:1


But hang on a second. We need to examine ourselves and asked if we have truly believe; truly believe that He is the Son of God, that He is risen, that we are saved by simply believing in Him and giving our lives to to Him.

We say, "Yes, we have." Good for us. If we truly believe Him, then we must not doubt His words. We must not doubt His promises and plan that are for our good. We say, "We believe. We do not doubt." But then again, do our actions demonstrate our belief?

Do we let worry and anxiety rule our lives? Do we worry that we do not have enough for tomorrow? Are we anxious over our future? Are we anxious of how our children will grow up?

If we are, then we are "not sure of what we hope for and uncertain of what we do not see! "

So, I leave it to you to decide if you will let worry and anxiety fill you or not.

God bless.

Steven

1 comment:

  1. Hi Steven. many have called Thomas "the doubting Thomas" but has anyone wonder why Thomas doubted the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Thomas walks with Jesus, talks with Jesus and always on the go with Jesus. I believe Thomas was denying the fact that his teacher, Jesus has died. He just can't face this as a fact. and when he was told that Jesus is alive, he wanted evident of proof. I think we will behave likewise. even for me. Yes, agree that anxiety kills faith. One will get disorientated and lost in the midst of anxiety. I am one of them. Thanks to alert me that God can make the donkey talks.

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