"Being Convinced"

 "Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." (John 20:27 KJV)

  "The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflower, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone - as though we had never been there." (PSALM 103:8-16 NLT)

 You have got to love the Lord's candor and ability to get right to the point. Thomas said he wanted proof, and Jesus shows up to give him what he asked for; even as crude as his request was, Jesus was willing to allow him to feel the truth! 

 I must admit, when I first accepted Christ into my heart, I was overwhelmed by the revelation of who He was, and that He, being God, was willing to die on the cross for my sins! However, several years later I began to doubt and struggled with what I had come to believe, as if those things I was taught as a child had started to creep back into my mind. 

 It really didn't take too long to sort things out, but it was rather interesting to me that it even happened, in the first place. So, I began to try and figure out why the change of heart. One of those things I found was the meaning of PSALM 103:12, as I had always been confused by the two points of view: one being the distance God takes away our sins, the other being the direction we can turn back to our sins. 

 When it comes right down to it, if we don't get certain things right, we can get way off course, even to the point of forgetting what it was that brought us into the Light! God absolutely keeps His promises! When He says your sins have been removed, you can believe that your sins are removed. But if you sin again, you are likely to feel as though your sins are no longer removed, as if God no longer needs to keep His promise! 

 Can you see where this is going? The most important thing that we must do, is to Trust God in all that He says! He does not lie or play games with us, everything He says He will do; He will do! If we ask Him to prove something because we have little faith, guess what! He will show us something that will help us with our faith! It might feel a little awkward or cause you to be challenged to the test; but He is more than willing to teach you to trust Him, one way or another! 

 That said, I can promise you, it is best to take Him at His word! He gave us His word for a reason, (no pun intended,) that we can study it and understand the Truth, without having to be shown too many times what it feels like to experience how true it really is...

"Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire." (Hebrews 12:28-29 NLT)