Read John 10:31-42
Why is it that one of our favorite phrases is “prove it”?
If a little kid tells his friend that he can do a back flip, the immediate response is, “so prove it.” If someone wants a second chance in a relationship, they have to prove that they deserve it. We are all like that to an extent- we prefer to see the concrete proof of something rather than accept it on a basis of “blind faith.” If we are told or promised something, it can be hard to believe until we have some visual evidence to support it.
Sometimes our relationship can be like that with God. Jesus was being persecuted by the Jews for calling Himself the Son of God. They wanted to see proof that the words Jesus was speaking held truth. They didn’t believe that Jesus was really the Son of God.
How would you react? Put yourself in the same situation. If you saw a man on a street corner claiming to be God’s Son, would you believe him? Or would you chalk it up to another strange person looking for pocket change? The Jews chose to believe what their eyes told them, not what God and their faith told them.
Human nature is to rely on concrete evidence- the things we can hear, see, smell, and touch- not what we feel in our hearts. It is hard to put complete faith in God without physical evidence. When life isn’t great, it is hard to see that God is with us. But we must trust that God is carrying us the whole way, and the proof of that is in God’s promise to always love us in ways we cannot imagine.
God’s plan for us as individuals is something invisible except to God, and it isn’t easy to put so much belief into something we cannot see. Faith may seem less concrete than visual proof, but we must realize that our relationship with God is truer and more real than anything we could ever encounter on the earth through one of our five senses.
Abigail Barrett
