“When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them “Peace be with you.” Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore were saying to him “We have seen the Lord!” but he said to them, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came and the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My sid3; and be not unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to hum, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
John 20:19-29
You know, it’s pretty hard to imagine being in the same shoes as Thomas. Of course we could say now that of course we would believe that Jesus rose from the dead without proof, we believe that now. Sometimes, we believe we would respond a center way to a situation, and then end up doing exactly what we never thought we would. Thomas relied on his own knowledge of the world he lived in and his own logic. Even though we believe whole-heartedly that Jesus rose from the dead to save us, we still do the same thing that Thomas did. Often, we rely on ourselves too much.
Trusting God can be a really hard thing, yet we are called to do it multiple times in the Bible.
Jeremiah 17:7-8: “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Proverbs 3:5-6:Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Psalm 56:3: When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
Psalm 143:8: Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
Psalm 91:2: I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
2 Corinthians 5:7: For we live by faith, not by sight.
Proverbs 25:29: Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
There are so many verses that speak of putting our trust and faith in the Lord. Yet why is this often an issue for us? Sure we believe the big things. Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. We believe that God has a plan for our lives. We believe that God works His will through us. Do we trust Him with the little things?
Do you have a hard situation to work through? Trust the Lord to give you the wisdom to handle it.
Do you have financial problems? God will provide.
One of the big thing that we focused on at Training Camp was giving up everything to God and trusting Him. There were so many things that I was worried about coming into camp and preparing to leave for this trip. Leaving family and friends, being prepared with everything I would need, getting along with my squad, bonding with my team, what mission work on the field will look like and how I will handle that, but the biggest thing had to be raising financial support. The beginning of planning for this was one of the most daunting things I have had to do. I was standing at the base of the biggest mountain that I have ever had to climb, and I could see all the way to the top. I saw all of the rocky patches. I saw the hard trek uphill to get to my goal, and I was downright terrified. But as of now, I am most of the way up that mountain. Looking back down, I can see it was not as hard as I thought it would be. I found other hikers along the way and we began to support and encourage each other. I could not have hiked this far alone, and neither could any of my squad mates. It is purely God.
I have barely skirted by on fundraising so far. I barely made the first deadline, and am cutting it even closer with the second. I check my fundraising account very often so I have a good understanding of where I am and essentially how stressed out I need to be. Then we spent one day at camp talking about trusting in God. So I prayed for a while, cried for a little bit, and surrendered it to God. The stress, the worry, the nervousness, the fear of not making it or being good enough.
When I received my phone that evening, someone had messaged me that day that an anonymous donor was giving me $1,000.
I was blown away.
Sometimes we have things that come up in our life that we don’t know how we are gonna get through it. It could be big, it could be small. It could be anything, but we have to remember that no matter how small it is, God has got it handled if you give it to Him and not take it upon yourself to solve all the problems. That is not up to you to do.
Sometimes I have moments that I have no idea where this money is coming from. I need another $3,000 in the next two and a half weeks. Where in the world is that coming from? How am I going to get it? Who is it going to come from? What do I need to be doing to get that money?
There are so many questions, but the answer is very simple.
It doesn’t matter how or why or when or where, God can do anything. God does everything. There is no reason to worry and stress about whatever is going on. Trust God, even though you can’t see Him. Let Him guide your steps. When you are afraid, trust in Him. Always. Of course we can’t just sit around and wait for God to do His thing, we need to work for it as well. But God is working through us. Fundraising is still a really hard thing to give up to God and I catch myself worrying about it sometimes. Then I remember how good of a God He is and He will call people to donate and He will lead those who are meant to support the sharing of His love, and I must be confident that He will provide.
“Dear Jesus, are you up there? Few things been on my mind, cause I’ve been told you’re always listening, I hope you don’t mind I’m prone to doubt. Cause in this world, all around me, so many things are going wrong. I thought you said to love each other, isn’t that why you murdered your Son? Dear Jesus, are you listening? Few things been on my mind, cause I’ve been told you’re always listening. I hope you don’t mind I’m prone to doubt.”
Thomas by Colin Leonard
