Life-spark: Get ready to go higher in your faith. (John 20:15-25)
They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side. (John 20:25)
Mary had touched Jesus after His resurrection. Peter and John went to His open tomb. Other disciples had seen the Lord in various places. Some of them were together in a house with a dead-bolted door, fearful of arrest or death. Suddenly Jesus appeared in their midst, the door still locked. What was their faith level at this point? It probably varies, but I wonder if the corporate faith level was a five on a scale of one to ten.
I think of faith as a two-story house with a basement. Thomas, absent when the Lord came through the walls, was in the basement of faith, refusing to believe unless he touched the Evidence. The other disciples were in a room on faith’s ground floor, believing, somewhat. Weeks later they would all be in an upper room with open windows. My faith level has ranged over time from the basement to the upper room. Faith is not final. Doubt is not final.
There are two main words for doubt in the New Testament. One word means dialog. It pictures and inner dialog that is in process and will eventually be resolved as belief or unbelief. The other word is the root of our word meteorite. Faith hasn’t landed yet. Things are still up in the air like a meteor. A doubting persons heart and mind can yet land in the land of belief, or in the land of unbelief.
I’m no stranger to doubt. I’ve been in faith’s dark basement several times. I’m glad Jesus came to the one-story Christians, to Thomas in the basement, and He came, via the Holy Spirit, to the believers in the upper room. He’s come to me in all three rooms also. He found me in the basement forty-eight years ago.
Life challenge: Is your faith underground, ground level or second story today? Are you headed up or down? Ask God to help you climb the steps to a higher story of faith.