Stop Doubting, Just Believe

“Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”  But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.”  Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”  Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

– John 20:24-29

Have you found yourself in Thomas’ shoes doubting Jesus?  You’ve been saved, baptized, even filled with the Holy Spirit, but you find yourself in this constant limbo of doubting and questioning whether Jesus is real.  You’ve felt the presence of the Holy Spirit before and spoken in tongues, but you have never had a real encounter with Jesus that removed all doubt from your mind and settled all accounts that he is indefinitely real!  You constantly hear other people’s real-life accounts of having these jaw-dropping Supernatural encounters with Jesus that just sound too good to be true and wonder why it has never happened to you!  Why have they experienced something so Amazing, but not you??  You yearn to have a real encounter with Jesus, but you are constantly questioning him and doubting him.  It seems as if you have all these questions in your mind about what you claim to believe.  You claim to believe in Jesus, yet you still doubt him.  It seems like you question Jesus more than you believe that he is the answer to all your questions.  Yes, Jesus appeared to Thomas and the other disciples in his resurrected body and had Thomas physically touch him to prove that he was real, but Jesus told Thomas something significant… he said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  So even though you have never had a real-life encounter with Jesus before, just know that Jesus calls blessed those who have not seen and yet have believed!  You need to come to the point in your relationship with the Lord where you put all doubts and questions aside and consciously determine that Jesus is no longer a question to you, but he is the answer to every single question you could ever have!  Once you reach this level of maturity in the Lord, you are truly blessed, because whether or not you ever have a real-life encounter with the Lord – it doesn’t matter – because you still believe in him no matter what.  You have finally reached the point where you have a child-like faith in Jesus and this is right where he wants you to be… You’ve stopped doubting and you just believe!