“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:29
These were the words of Jesus when addressing his disciple Thomas, after His crucifixion and resurrection. Having been told by the disciples that they had seen Jesus, Thomas adamantly replied that He would not believe unless he himself saw the imprints of the nails in His hands and put his hand in His side.
The colloquial term 'Doubting Thomas' has its origin in this incident. To doubt means to be uncertain about, consider questionable, hesitate to believe or to distrust. Wow! None of us would choose to align ourselves with doubt when it comes to believing the Word of God, despite physical evidence to the contrary. Jesus declared: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Still how many of us today can relate to doubting Thomas? Even though scripture declares to us that Jesus took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses and that by His stripes, we are healed ~ we still doubt. (Matthew 8:17, Isaiah 53:4,5) While the Bible emphatically states that we were healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ; we remain doubtful. Like Thomas, we are more inclined to believe only what our physical senses tell us rather than what is real in the spirit realm. Thomas, who had spent the three plus previous years with Jesus, was being dominated by what he could see in the natural realm, rather than what was possible in the spirit.
When we are dominated by our physical senses, our carnal nature, it's all too easy to align our thoughts, actions and beliefs with the natural. God is a Spirit. (John 4:24) And, when He heals us ~ it is through our inward-man, our spirits. We may or may not see it with our physical eyes immediately; but nonetheless it is real. The spiritual world is just as real as the physical world. We must choose to see it with our spiritual eyes and walk it out by faith. Scripture tells us that we walk by faith not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) And, in doing so, we will be blessed when, even though we have not seen ~ we nonetheless choose to believe!
DAILY DECLARATION
Thank You Father, that I can believe without seeing. I didn't see You part the Red Sea, yet I believe it. I didn't see Jesus' crucifixion, yet I believe it. I didn't see the resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet I believe it. I didn't see the Holy Spirit descend on the hundred and twenty in the Upper Room, yet I believe it. I didn't see Jesus heal me at Calvary ~ yet I choose to believe it!
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