No doubt, you have heard of the Apostle Thomas, often referred to as “Doubting Thomas”. Thomas has earned this name from the time when he would not believe that Jesus had appeared to the other Apostles (see John 20:19-28). He said, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” He had seen Jesus die. He saw Jesus buried. Thomas was a man who knew what he believed and he believed Jesus was dead. At first sight of the risen Jesus, he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28 NASB)

What would you think if I said I wish my faith was as strong as Thomas’? Well, I do. Furthermore, I think that the title of “Doubting Thomas” is not deserved. Let’s take a quick look at what the Bible says about Thomas…

Apart from him being simply named as one of the twelve Apostles, we first read of Thomas in John’s Gospel, Chapter 11. Jesus was with His Apostles and had just heard that Lazarus was dead and said He must go to wake him up. They all said to Jesus that the Jews would stone Him. It was Thomas who said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” (John 11:16 NASB)

In John Chapter 14, Jesus spoke of going away to prepare a place for the Apostles. Although Jesus expected them to understand, they did not. Thomas, not having a clue where Jesus was off to, said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” (John 14:5 NASB) What he was really saying was that he wanted to follow. He did not care where Jesus went, he just wanted to go, but was concerned that he might not know how to follow.

Next, we find Thomas in the upper room where the twelve had been staying after Jesus returned to heaven. Thomas, along with the others was described as, “continually devoting themselves to prayer.” (Acts 1:14 NASB)

If having the faith of Thomas means:

• Knowing exactly what one believes
• Being prepared to follow Jesus to death
• Wanting to follow Jesus anywhere, even if you don’t know where
• Being continually devoted to prayer

then give me the faith of “Doubting” Thomas any day! If more Christians had this type of faith, the world would be a very different place today.

The word “resilient” means:

> Returning to the original form after being bent, compressed, or stretched.

> Readily recovering, as from sickness, reverses, etc

Resilient people bounce back! They have ‘hard’ things happen to them – like all of us do – but instead of going down and staying down, they come back fighting! They bounce back into the ring for another round.

Resilient people recover from setbacks, disappointments, criticisms, disasters, put downs, and heartaches. Even the devil can’t stop them, because greater is He that is in them than he that is in the world.

Are you a resilient person? It’s certainly a quality God wants to build into each of our lives. He doesn’t want us to wallow in discouragement or self-pity when ‘tough’ things happen to us, but to rise up in His strength and get on with the job.

May God help us all to be resilient people.

“..the men of Israel…did not ask counsel of the LORD”
(Joshua 9:14)

Joshua made a peace treaty with the Gibeonites, who deceived him into thinking they were from a far country. He and the Israelite leaders were tricked by the Gibeonites’ old garments, mouldy bread and torn wineskins. This led them to make a mistake.

The writer of Joshua pinpoints the reason why these leaders were deceived:

Joshua and the leaders “did not ask counsel of the LORD”

They either forgot to pray, or simply chose not to pray. Perhaps the
decision seemed too straight-forward to warrant prayer. They did what seemed to be right to them. However, it was a mistake, and it soon became evident, and “all the congregation complained against the rulers” (Joshua 9:18)

There’s a valuable lesson for us in this incident. It is very easy to make decisions without seeking God. Have you done it? I have!
We can do what seems right to us and neglect prayer. But by neglecting prayer we neglect God. When we fail to consult God we can make wrong decisions and be left with unfortunate consequences. It’s happened countless times throughout history.

However, we always gain by asking God for guidance. He’s promised to give it! (Proverbs 3:5-6, James 1:5-6) There’s no disadvantages to seeking direction from God.

May we learn from the mistake of by Joshua and the leaders, and always take matters to God in prayer. We’ll be glad we did!

David Hunt