When Thomas heard that Jesus had risen from the grave and
people had seen him alive, everyone was so excited , everyone that is, except
Thomas. He was more practical, more logical and said guys, ‘if you want to
believe that’s fine, but not me. A man cant be dead three days and then come
back to life. I have to see to believe. I want to see the nail prints in his
hands. ‘ Now Thomas had spent just the same time as the other disciples yet
they were full of faith, they were all believers. Thomas was full of doubt, he
had all these questions. One day they were in a room together and Jesus came
walking in thru the doors, they nearly passed out , what’s interesting is that Jesus
didn’t go over to Andrew and say Andrew I made it, he didn’t walk over to
Mathew and give him a big hug, Jesus walked right upto Thomas, bypast all the
people that had faith and went to one person in the room that had doubt. He
didn’t shew him out and say ‘Thomas what’s wrong with you?’, he said ‘Thomas, I know you don’t believe, I
know you have doubts, I know you have questions but Thomas that’s okay, I
understand that’s why I came to you first, now feel the nail prints in my hand,
feel the scars in my side….
Notice the pattern, when you have doubts like Thomas, when
you blow it like Peter, when you fail like the woman that was married five
times we thing God is far away from us, it’s just the opposite. God came to the
people who had doubt before he came to people who had faith. You cant put God
in a box and tell God who to save and who to forgive and who to heal. The
longer I live I realize that Gods ways are not our ways, God will save the most
unlikely people, He will show mercy when we think they deserve judgment. Sometimes God will bypass the many that have
faith to get to the one that has doubt, its because He never writes us off. God
doesn’t judge us the way people do. God understands when you make a mistake ,
he understands when you have a doubt,. Its interesting to know, that `Thomas
doubted this one time and he became know as the doubting Thomas, it wasn’t for
a week or two but his whole life. People
labeled him a doubter. God doesn’t judge
you by one mistake. We call him doubting Thomas you know what God calls him ‘believing
Thomas’,’ forgiven Thomas’, ‘redeemed Thomas’,’ restored Thomas’,’ amazing
Thomas’ . What we don’t hear much about is that Thomas went on to touch all of
India. He is credited as being the one that brought the good news to the entire
Indian sub-continent. You may have struggled with an addiction your whole life,
but remember this God is not judging you by that one set back in your life. Get
rid of that negative label. Maybe you have failed in business, blew a
relationship , did something that your not proud of, don’t let that become your
identity. Stop seeing yourself as doubting Thomas, addicted Thomas, undisciplined
Thomas , unbelieving Thomas, failing Thomas, you got to turn it around start
seeing yourself as ‘blessed Thomas’ ,’ free Thomas’, ‘redeemed Thomas’,’
successful Thomas’.
Too often we get our performance mixed up with our identity.
You may have failed but you are not a failure. That’s what you did but that’s
not who you are, you are child of the most high God. You’ve been hand picked by
the creator of the universe, you may struggle with an addiction but you are not
an addict, that’s what you did, that’s not who are, that’s what you did, you
are free, you are clean, you are restored, now don’t go around dwelling on your
past mistakes. Quit replaying all the times that you failed, all the time that
you gave in to temptation, all the times you blew the relationship , the time
that it didn’t work out, it’s only going to depress you. It’s like a remote to
change the channel on the television you got to change the channel in your mind. You will not be free from guilt, you will not
enjoy your life if your constantly going to be replaying the negative images of
your past. If you have to relay anything replay your victories, replay the
times that you have honored God, replay the times that you have helped somebody
in need, that will change your perspective. Some of you today will go to a new
level if you just change the channel in your mind.
Few years ago a young lady named Rachel Smith who competed
and won the Ms America Beauty Pagent A, bright young girl who goes all over the
world helping under privileged children. She went on to compete in the Ms
Universe Pagent, As she walked out on stage during the Evening gown round of
the competition, all by her self, with millions of people watching around the
world live on television, she lost her footing and fell flat on her backside.
She was so embarrassed and got up as quickly as she could, put her smile back
on her face and continued to walk. The audience weren’t so forgiving, there
were jeers and laughter and boos and she
felt humiliated. In spite of the fall she made it to the top 5 of the
competition .Her next task was to answer a question randomly chosen by the
judges she walked back on to the stage were she had fallen just a few minutes
earlier, a judge picked a random question out of a hat, her question was : If
there was any one moment in your life that you could relive and do it differently what would that be?
Here her most embarrassing moment was 20 minutes earlier. How many of us would
say ‘I want to relive that moment’ without missing a beat. She said if,’ I
could relive any moment of my life again I would relive my trip to Africa,
working with the orphans, seeing their beautiful smiles and feeling their warm embrace.
Instead of reliving a moment of pain, a moment of embarrassment she chose to
relive a moment of joy , a moment where she was making a difference, a moment
where she was proud of herself. In life we are all going to have times when we
fall, embarrassing moments, unfair situations I can assure you that they will
come up on the movie screen of your mind again and again, You got to get good
at changing your channels, put on accomplishments, put on your victories, put
on the time when your proud of yourself.
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