Gospel of John Student DevotionalSýnishorn

Have you ever been in a situation where you just can’t come to terms with something? Maybe it’s shockingly good news, or something that was completely unexpected. I had one of these moments in December of my senior year of high school. My cheer team had just competed in the state finals, and it didn’t go perfectly. We had one mistake, and because of how competitive our division was, we thought that meant winning wasn’t going to happen for us. But, come awards, our name wasn’t announced in third or second place, but first place. We were absolutely baffled, and I could not believe it.

Looking back on it, I should’ve had a little bit more confidence in us as a team. I didn’t take into account the difficulty of our routine, that it outweighed all of the other teams. Instead, I jumped straight to doubt. All I looked at was what was right in front of me. We had a drop, and that had to mean there was no way for us to win. But why? Why did I jump to that conclusion, even though it wasn’t true? We live in a world that is built on doubt. We tend to only believe the concrete facts that are laid out directly in front of us, and we run away from anything that makes us take a little leap of faith. Oftentimes, we have to see it to believe it.

Jesus knew this about us. When He was in Jerusalem, he saw how doubtful some people were about him. He said, “‘You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life’” (John 5:39-40, NIV). The people were trusting what they could read and see. They trusted some of the words that were written in front of them, the words that didn’t “require” them to believe in anything that they were skeptical about. They were selective in what they believed–because they didn’t know for sure. They didn’t trust him. They didn’t have faith.

See, we can’t be selective in our faith. We can’t pick the words we want to hear and ignore the words that we don’t. We can’t put our trust in works alone, but instead we must trust God’s word. He is a true, trustworthy, and almighty God. What He says, He does. He does not lead us astray. But, these promises aren’t always presented to us on a pretty platter. He isn’t always going to carve words into stones for us, speak to us out of a burning bush, or split the sea for us. But, just because we cannot always see the ways in which He is working doesn’t mean He is any less powerful. He is just as powerful now as He was when He split the sea, and His promises hold just as true now as they did then. All we have to do is believe. Our faith cannot be based on sights and works alone, but on His truthful, restorative nature.