Patience

Last night’s Bible study raised an interesting question: why do we belittle “doubting Thomas” just because he said:

“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (John 20:25)

How many times have we asked God to prove something by giving us what our eyes can see? After all, faith is defined this way: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)?

After some discussion, we determined that doubt is asking for proof in an attempt to build or reassure our faith or erase our doubts. However, God often answers prayer or does things we did not expect, giving us a faith-builder that was initiated by Him. There is a difference between asking for proof and Him giving us proof because He sees we need a boost.

As for doubt, it is related to impatience, like the child that wants supper now when supper has not finished cooking. Sometimes this is described to a human inability to deal with delayed gratification. This happens to adults too. We want something NOW.

Devotional reading this morning asks: Do I have the patience to wait on God’s timing? The Word of God describes the journey to patience this way:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

“Steadfast” means to endure patiently. It is a trait developed by having it tested by difficulties or challenges. Those tests usually start small.

For instance, when others learn that I quilt, they often say, “I don’t have the patience for that” meaning they want the quilt finished. When I started quilting, I enjoyed the process so much that finishing was often delayed. Now I’m very glad to have another one finished but have learned through making many quilts that the process is necessary. It also built my patience so I can persist on a project until it is done without being antsy about it.

The truth is, God patiently goes through a process to answer many of my prayers. He may give me a requested parking place in a few minutes, but when I pray for someone’s healing, or salvation, rarely do such things happen at the snap of a finger. He could do it that way, but takes time to soften hearts (or build immune systems) in respect to human situations. Not everyone is like Saul, who was persecuting Christians when God confronted him and changed his life. It seemed like an instant zap, and so did my salvation — at least to observers. No one could see the preparation going on in my heart for many years.

God’s process begins by convincing a person that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. But then they hear that they are sinners who need Him. That is a common parking place, but some admit it is true and find out that He loves them enough to die for their sin. If someone resists any of those things, He comes to them in different ways, always looking for a change in their hearts at whatever stage they are in so they can move toward Him.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

Thomas doubted that Jesus was alive. When I pray for someone and nothing seems to be happening, I could doubt that God is at work, but the entire Bible declares otherwise. I just cannot see it, like Thomas doubted until he saw Jesus. Basically, this man was saying to the other disciples, “I hear you tell me but I need to see Jesus for myself.” That sounds less like doubt and more like what Jesus wants for everyone — not to believe on hearsay but believe in Him because of a personal and very real encounter with Him.

PRAY: You are telling me again to be patient. I want what You want and I know that You could speak and make things happen instantly, but like most instant stuff in our world, it never turns out with the same power and potential as those things that take time to accomplish. I’ve been told not to pray for patience as it invites trials, but it also produces maturity. May Your will be done.

My well is not deep enough!

Christians have ‘prayer lists’ of burdens we regularly bring to God. Sometimes we call them ‘shopping lists’ and occasionally berate ourselves for treating God like a genie in a bottle. We know that prayer is more than lining up with our requests.

However, God does tell us to ask. Where else can we take our burdens? I know if I have a concern and do not take it to Him, I will try to “fix it” myself. That never works!

When Jesus encountered a woman at a well and asked her for a drink, she was shocked at His request for several reasons. But she was even more stunned when He offered her “living water.” She replied . . .

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:11–14)

She wondered where He would get such amazing water. All she knew was the well in front of her. Chambers parallels this well to the depths of human life and the way we tend to go there first when we are in trouble. Some of us think that when we ask God to help us with the problem, He will draw from the only well we know – our resources.

I’ve learned my lesson. No matter how deep that well might be, He cannot draw anything out of it. Without Him, I am nothing and can do nothing.

Yet I have limited Jesus Christ by thinking I need to be smart, or talented, or a good speaker, or particularly gifted so that He can lift my burdens, answer my prayers, or use me in His service. How foolish! He cannot use the well of my sinful human nature; He is Almighty God and draws His response to my needs out of Himself.

I know this, yet like an impatient child, if He is not doing anything for a time, I begin to drift into doubt. Will He do it? Can He do it? For this, I’m often praying, “Nothing is impossible for you” and at the same time trying to offer my own well. In my pride, I’m always disappointed when it comes up dry.

Sin is like that. It relies on my “own way” instead of looking to Jesus. He is the only One who can do whatever needs to be done and do it perfectly. He constantly amazes me. At the same time, I’m constantly amazed at how quickly I forget that.

Failures, hypocrisy, motivation, and transparency

2 Kings 11:1–12:21, Galatians 3:1–29, Proverbs 7:10–20

What is the difference between a selfish, controlling person, a godly person who makes mistakes, and a hypocrite? Because the Bible says we look on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart, it seems to me that motivation is more important than what can be seen on the surface.

Selfish and controlling is illustrated by Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah, king of Judah. “When she saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death.” (2 Kings 11:1–2)

After six years, Jehoiada the priest ordered the army to put Athaliah to death along with anyone who followed her. Then Joash was made king and the people rejoiced. The city was quiet after this wicked woman had been put to death.

Joash illustrates a godly man who makes mistakes. He was only seven years old when he began to reign, but he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. (2 Kings 12:2) One of his accomplishments was to rebuild the temple that had fallen into disrepair.

His error was doing as several kings before him had done. When threatened by a foreign king, Joash “took all the sacred gifts” gathered by his forefathers, and “all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house” and sent them to the foreign king as a way to make him go away. It worked, but this doesn’t seem to me an act of faith. (2 Kings 12:17–18)

The woman described by Solomon in Proverbs 7 illustrates hypocrisy and an evil heart. She is after a man and “meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, ‘I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you . . . .’” (Proverbs 7:10–15)

The description shows her evil intent, but it also says she made a show of piety by making a sacrifice and paying her vows. Was anyone fooled? Solomon warns his readers to not be fooled, so there is a danger of being led into sin by a wicked hypocrite.

The people of Galatia illustrate good deed with wrong motives. They wanted to be right with God, made the initial step of faith in Christ, but instead of walking by faith, they fell into the error of trying to please God by doing good works. They may have looked righteous on the outside, but God knew their heart and didn’t like what He saw. He inspired Paul to write, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’?” (Galatians 3:2–6)

Faith has always been the way to live and to please God. Paul explained that law was added because of transgressions until Jesus came, but it could not give life, nor could it be the way of life in Christ. Their righteousness was by faith, and so must their way of life after they received it by faith in Jesus Christ. Living by faith is a gift, just as salvation by faith is a gift.

Evil motivations will show up in evil deeds. Godly motivations will show up in godly living. As a Christian, I have Christ in my life. My aim is to live by faith, even though I sometimes fail. This usually happens when I stop trusting God and start to trust my own judgments.

When that happens, any pretense of godliness would make me a hypocrite. The only solution is transparency — that is, openly confessing my doubts about God. Funny thing, as soon as I say it, I realize how ridiculous it sounds.

Doubt and unbelief are not the same thing

How did the church in those darker ages treat doubt? They burned the heretic! How awful. Reformation brought us past that physically, but have we got past it morally? What does the modern church say to skeptics? We don’t burn them, but often brand those who cannot see the truths of Christianity as we see them.

In my studies this week, each lecture points to the fact that God alone reveals truth about Himself. If He did not do that, no one could know anything for certain. People would either say there is no God or invent one.

Because He reveals Himself, there is a difference between doubt and unbelief. That is, doubt cannot believe because God has not revealed Himself to that person. On the other hand, unbelief has had a revelation from God and refuses to believe it. The difference is between can’t and won’t.

There is good reason that Thomas has become known as “Doubting Thomas” rather than an apostate. He believed in some ways, but the resurrection was too much for him. He needed a revelation from God . . .

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (John 20:24–25)

Thomas struggled with news of the resurrection. He needed to see Jesus and Jesus accommodated him.

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although 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, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:26–27)

Most people remember the story only to this point, but there is more. Thomas responded to this very literal revelation with these words, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) These are words that even a doubter can say, but are never heard from the lips of those who refuse to believe.

Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt can’t believe, unbelief won’t believe. Doubt looks for light, unbelief is content with darkness. Jesus attacked that love of darkness rather than light, but was respectful and generous with the intellectual questioning of Thomas, Philip, Nicodemus, and many others who came to him with doubts.

I wonder if Thomas stood there waiting for a rebuke for his unbelief? If he did, that never happened. Instead, Christ gave him facts. He met those doubts with teaching. He said . . .

See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. (Luke 24:39)

Is it a surprise that the Spirit of Christ is a scientific Spirit? He grounded faith in facts, in historical realities, in a real person who really lived, died, and rose from the dead. Our Christian theology can never be nebulous human versions of who God is, but divine truths based on the facts that God has revealed about Himself.

Faith is not opposed to reality and truth. Instead, it flies in the face of our desires, what we want to be true. If I want to live my own life and make my own choices, I could never believe in Jesus Christ who promises truth and abundant life to all who follow Him. Doubt may not be certain of where that following will take me, but unbelief decides that I’d rather do my own thing than yield my life to Him.