April 29

John 20

After Jesus’s resurrection, He appears to His disciples and reassures Thomas of His deity.

INSIGHT

God commands us to believe in Him, but He doesn’t require us to believe in Him contrary to the evidence. Thomas needed to be shown that the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection was really true. God provided Thomas with the proof he needed. Jesus appeared to Thomas and said, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands…Do not be unbelieving, but believing” (20:27). Jesus saw what Thomas needed and gave him sufficient evidence to believe. You don’t have to be afraid of sincere doubt. That doubt can be changed. Just examine the evidence of Christ’s work in the New Testament. Then ask God to help you to believe according to the evidence. Like the father in Mark 9:24, your prayer can be: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

PRAYER

Praise the Lord that He has made the truths of His existence, power, and righteousness plain for all people to see:
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in (Isaiah 40:21-22).

Pause for personal praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord:
When I know to do good and do not do it, to me it is sin (based on James 4:17).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Now pause to pray this affirmation to the Lord:
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him (Psalm 103: 11-13).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, pray for: