Sincere Heart II

“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted” Matt.28:16.

Thomas is proof that the biggest doubters can become the strongest believers. Thomas happened to be the disciple that went the farthest among all of the disciples. Thomas went as far as India to preach the gospel, the same Thomas that doubted. But if you look at the disciples and the people that followed Jesus, Thomas was not the only one who doubted. But he was the only one that was sincere enough to put his doubt on display. Even after Jesus had showed Himself to everybody and again to Thomas, when He was ascending the Bible says but some of them doubted and Thomas was not part of them. All the while Jesus was addressing Thomas’ doubts, these people had their own doubts but they kept quiet about their doubts. Thomas was sincere enough to make public his doubt but they were hypocritical. They kept quiet and they did not get healed. Anything you hide cannot heal. If you have doubts about anything, bring it forward and let God heal it. You have problems in your marriage but you are hiding it. If hiding it could solve it, it would have been solved years ago. But it keeps getting worse because whatever you hide will not heal.

Even though he was doubtful Thomas was loyal. In John 11, Martha and Mary had sent for Jesus to come and heal Lazarus but Jesus delayed. Eventually when Jesus wanted to go the disciples said to Jesus, are you ok? These people just wanted to kill you last week. Jesus says are there not six hours in a day, let us go and wake our friend because he is asleep. Jesus said to them let us go and raise up a dead person but Thomas said in his heart you are going to be the one that will be dead. How do I know? Thomas’ response; “Then Thomas [also known as Didymus] said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” John 11:16. Doubtful, but loyal. He doubted Jesus but he was loyal to Jesus. That is someone that needs a thumb up. Imagine someone saying to Peter let us go and die for Jesus. Peter who is always the first to offer up himself. Thomas said to all the disciples, this Jesus is bent on dying, let us go and die with Him. That is loyalty. He was not only doubtful but loyal. Thomas was sincere to the core. There is something about being sincere that God cannot ignore. By God’s grace I am trying to be like God. I cannot stand hypocrites, people that come to you with pretentious questions meanwhile what they really want to know is clear. I just ignore and play along. I love people that are sincere.

Prayer: Father, I pray that loyalty and sincerity will be found in my heart, in Jesus Name.