Most of us long for miracles.  And Jesus’ perfect life, death on sinners’ behalf as the fulfillment of Passover, and His physical resurrection prove that He is willing and able to meet our greatest needs:  complete forgiveness and a new heart to trust and follow Him as our living King.  But even in the Bible, most of the journey with Jesus is lived in the moments between miracles.  In this 50-day series, we’ll consider some of those moments leading up to the next great miracle in the New Testament:  the fulfillment of Pentecost and the incredible growth of the Church.

I’m so glad for the honesty of God’s Word.  The Holy Spirit could have inspired the recording of only the good stuff about God’s people, but He shows us their struggles and failures, too, so we may see even more clearly that He is our only true Hero and that He is gracious.  That is exactly what we see in Matthew 28:17.

The disciples had obeyed the risen Lord and made the multi-day journey from Jerusalem to Galilee, and there He was.  Alive.  Matthew tells us “And when they saw Him they worshiped Him . . . but some doubted.”

Can a person genuinely follow Jesus and doubt, too?

Of course.

No one has perfect faith.  Or maybe it would be more helpful to say that even some with the strongest faith have struggled to believe.

Isn’t this what we see in Elijah who stood up against 450 prophets of Baal in a duel to the death and then ran from one woman, Jezebel? (1 Kings 18:20 – 19:3)  Isn’t this what we see in John the Baptist who confidently called ever the Pharisees to repent, testified of the coming Messiah and pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, and then sent his own followers to ask if He was the One “or should we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3)  Isn’t this what we see in Peter who declared His belief in Jesus as the Son of God and soon after refused to believe in His plan to die and be raised again? (Matthew 16:15-23)

If, like some of the disciples who were looking right at Jesus, you sometimes wrestle that your belief in the Lord is not perfectly restful, perfectly strong, or perfectly anything, you’re in good company…and I’m not talking about those disciples.

You’re in the Lord’s company.

Our faith is not in the amount of our faith.  It’s in the risen Jesus who knows our hearts and covers our past, present, and future sins, and doubts by His grace on the cross.

There’s a big difference between denying the Lord (being decidedly unfaithful) and being faithless (having little faith).  Remember that “The saying is trustworthy, for If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful—for He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11-13)

So wherever He places you today, look less at your faith and more at the One who has proven that He is faithful.

I hope today’s thought and others in this series will be helpful to you as you journey with Jesus in the moments between miracles.

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