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By Mike Caton

John 20:29, “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”

Thomas, as well as the other disciples, and the women and the two men on the road to Emmaus and about 500 other people (I Corinthians 15:6) saw Jesus alive after his death with their own eyes. We can only imagine how powerful that had to be! But it is also a convincing proof of the resurrection. That many people don’t imagine the same thing at the same time. And there is no way you can come up with a falsehood and have that many people keep the truth to themselves. Many of those people lived out their lives and even went to their death over this.

But millions, even billions have believed in Jesus and they have not seen him.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Jesus blessed those of us who have faith like that. Faith is confidence in what we hope for, it is trust that we can rely on the truth of Jesus and the gospel message. It is a conviction, a firmly held belief. Faith is the assurance of what we do not see. Faith is confidence, certainty in the promises God has given. And though we can’t feel or see those things, we believe the one who gave us the promise. We can see countless examples of this every day; husbands and wives trust each other, children trust their parents, we trust school teachers, doctors, nurses, policemen. We trust that guy coming toward us on the highway to stay on his side of the road. Obviously, some of those folks let us down, but we continue to trust with every new day.

And God is completely trustworthy, unlike everyone else in our lives. God never will and never has let us down. To be sure, things have happened that we did not understand or like. But maybe later we saw the wisdom in what God did. Or maybe we will not figure it out until eternity. But God will not let us down, never has and never will. We simply need to allow our faith to grow, and to trust him in more in every situation. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”

Father, increase my faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven. He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works full time with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive daily devotions in your inbox, email mikecaton@centurylink.net.

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