What does it take for you to believe something you hear? What if it sounds a little outrageous? Do you need to have proof? Do you need to see it with your own eyes? What does that say about your faith?
We all want proof for some claims we hear. If we hear of someone surviving a horrendous automobile accident, we want to see them and the vehicle. If we hear of someone making an amazing catch, we want to see the video.
Some of us simply won’t believe without seeing with our own eyes. We may even say, “I’m from Missouri, show me” as a way of indicating we don’t believe it. Others of us will acknowledge we heard but still won’t believe. We may say nothing, but in our minds, we are thinking, “That can’t possibly be true. It’s an exaggeration.”
Jesus ran into this same skepticism when people heard about Him. Some might have a small inkling or hope the stories were true, but they wanted additional proof. Others may have believed and wanted Jesus to perform a miracle for them, out of their own selfishness. Are we like this sometimes?
If we are looking for proof that Jesus is who He says He is today, we cannot simply run up to Him and ask Him to perform a miracle. So, how do we get proof? How do we get proof of Alexander the Great’s conquering of nations? How do we know Aristotle or Socrates wrote what they wrote? We trust these historical events have been written down and passed down. Yet, we have more written historical proof about Jesus than those three combined and still don’t believe.
Why don’t we believe? The simple reason is this, Jesus causes us to make a choice. We can acknowledge and even believe what we read of Alexander, Aristotle, and Socrates without it changing our lives one bit. But Jesus demands a choice and our lives to change if we believe in Him.
We don’t want to make the choice. We don’t want to live different. We don’t want to be different than our friends and the rest of the world. We prefer to fit in than stand out. We say we want to stand out, yet our actions say something completely different. Believing Jesus is who He says He is requires us to change. It requires us to allow Him to make the change in us.
I pray we all believe Jesus is who He says He is. I pray we believe deep in our hearts. I pray each one of us will allow Him to make changes in our lives, so we stand out in the crowd. Believe in Jesus. Know that He is who He says He is. Allow Him to make a change in you. Trust Him.
John 4:48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
Marty Pressey 