This is part of our Thursday series on the encounters with the Risen Savior that are shared in the four gospels. Today’s encounter is shared with us by John.
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Last week we looked at Jesus appearing to the disciples. As John finishes his account of that event, in chapter 20 verses 24- 29 he then goes on to say this:

I’m just going to say it. I think Thomas gets a bad rap. For centuries he has literally been referred to as “Doubting Thomas.” But based on last week’s readings, if we call him Doubting Thomas, then we should be calling the other apostles Doubting Peter, Doubting John, Doubting Andrew, Doubting James and so on. All of the disciples had two opportunities to believe without seeing that Jesus is alive, but they hadn’t. They didn’t believe Mary and the women. They didn’t believe the disciples from the Emmaus Road. None of them believed until they saw Jesus. In fact in Mark’s account of Jesus’s appearance to the disciples he says that Jesus “reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.”

Thomas was not alone in his disbelief, and when he saw Jesus like the others had he immediately confessed, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus’s response to Thomas doesn’t come across too harsh, but still echoes that “reproach” that Mark talks about. Jesus said to Thomas:

The ones who were closest to Jesus, those He’d been teaching for three years, had been hesitant or scared to believe He had been resurrected. They had to see for themselves before they believed, but Jesus said that those who believe without seeing are blessed.

That is you and I if we are believers. We had to accept and come to the point of saying you are “My Lord and my God” to Him without physically seeing Him or being able to touch His wounds. It is what we call faith. As the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 11:1,

​We did not see Him resurrected as the disciples did, but we have conviction of things we didn’t see. We have assurance in the hope of salvation, and Jesus calls us blessed.

But just as the disciples were far from perfect, so are we. We all have times and areas where we struggle with belief. We may not doubt His resurrection or our salvation, but maybe we have moments where we struggle to believe His love for us, His goodness, His faithfulness to equip us to do what He has called us to, and more. In those moments we need to show ourselves a little grace and realize that moments of unbelief didn’t disqualify the disciples and they don’t disqualify us either. In those moments we need to place our eyes on Jesus and cling to Him until we can find ourselves in midst of our struggles and disbelief finally recognizing the Truth and confessing as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God!”

This is week three in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
  
Today’s Scripture passage is Habakkuk 1:5 (NASB)

​God is “doing something in your days” something we wouldn’t believe. Do you really believe that statement?

For those of us in ministry, isn’t that at least part of why we got into ministry in the first place? We wanted to be a part of what God was doing. And you definitely don’t have to be in full-time ministry to feel that way.

But as the home page of this website says, sometimes in the busyness of our lives and ministry we start to lose sight of the fact that God is doing things, astonishing, wonderful things all around us. And at times He is even doing those things in or through us.

So why is it so easy for us to lose sight of this? Why does it become so easy to read that verse and hear a small voice in our head saying: Really? Even now? Even in…whatever mess, craziness, challenge or trial we find ourselves in at the moment?

Is it possible that we’ve stopped looking and observing? Is it possible that we might be a little like Peter who stepped out of the boat with his eyes fully on Jesus only to find himself sinking like a rock when his focus shifted back to the storm? I don’t know about you, but all too often I find myself feeling this way. Those storms around us can be really distracting. We feel like they need our attention. We’re adults. We’re leaders. We have responsibilities. We can’t ignore the storms. Was Peter ignoring the storm while His eyes were on Jesus or was He trusting Jesus to  help him in the midst of the storm?

Why do we feel like keeping our eyes, attention, and focus on Jesus means we’ll end up missing something or neglecting what we’re supposed to do in the midst of the storm? As I ask myself that question, any answer that I come up with ultimately seems to come back to a lack of trust: being afraid I’ll miss something important, being afraid that something will catch me off guard, being afraid that people will think I’m shirking my responsibilities. All of those are ultimately a lack of trust that Jesus will walk me through the storm as I focus on Him.

So my challenge, and am I guessing yours, is to stop giving so much of our focus and attention to the tasks and trials around us and trust to Jesus to walk us through as we look at Him and observe what He is doing. In our astonishment and wonder at what He is doing in our day, we might just be reminded of the joy that comes from joining Him along the way.