Monday, May 3, 2010

Faith Hesitations

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.” (John 14:11)

“Lord, show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

Three years. For three years Philip had been a disciple of Jesus. Why couldn’t he perceive the spiritual reality right in front of him? The evidence was overwhelming – healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, incredible instructions. Thousands of miracles, many not even recorded. It’s as if someone had pieced together 999 pieces of a 1,000 piece puzzle, and Philip wasn’t satisfied unless he could see that one more piece.

Before we come down too hard on Philip, we should probably recognize and confess that we might not fare any better ourselves if we were in his sandals.

The evidence truly is overwhelming. The records are very clear. And yet, like some of the disciples and a multitude since then, we sometimes still have “faith hesitations.” A faith hesitation is a little question mark in the back of the mind that just sort of resides there. It only seems to come into play when a decision of faith is called for. It more or less whispers, “Is any of it really true?”

Jesus challenged Philip in front of everyone, probably because He knew that there were others who had some faith hesitations or challenges. He basically said that if Philip had a problem believing Him, then he should look at all the works that had taken place and believe because of them.

Many in our world hear the story of Jesus and hesitate to come to faith in Him, because the story seems so incredulous. Some never do come to faith, but what we can do is to keep pointing to the truths that are recorded in the Scripture, and let the Lord use His own words to bring people to the conviction of truth.

Lord, We pray today for those who deal with faith hesitations, that the works You have done will help to move them beyond those hesitations to the commitment of faith. We pray especially that the lost will come to faith because of the truth of Your works recorded in the Scripture and recorded as well in our lives. Amen.

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