Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today let’s differentiate binge watching Jesus from believing in Him.

Today’s scripture, John 4:46‭-‬48 (NLT) shared…
As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die. Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”

And John 12:37 (NLT) said…
But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in him.

Consider…
This week’s theme was inspired by my wife and I planning to continue our binge watching of the television show, The Good Doctor. While the show is fascinating because we get to see and admire the amazing abilities and honesty of a Doctor, who is high on the Autism Spectrum, it’s very obvious that it’s a drama, not a documentary.

Unfortunately during Jesus’ journey here on earth, people binge watched Jesus to see what miraculous things He might do. I say that based on the question He asked the father who asked him to heal his son…
Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”

People today still have a propensity to view Jesus as an on demand God, who will show up to do miraculous things in our lives whenever we ask. Some people just ask Him to show up and prove He’s real. Like one of my favorite songs, by Kirk Franklin, says…

Let me touch You and see if You are real
Even though, I know my heart Your hands can heal
But sometimes I get discouraged
And I need Your strength and shield, Jesus
Let me touch You and see if You are real
Sometimes to me You seem so far away
And I wonder how to make it through the day
But if I can touch the hem of Your garment
Your power, I know, You can heal, Jesus
Let me touch You and see if You are real
When I’m down
Let me touch You
When I’m lonely
Let me touch You
When I’m discouraged
Let me touch You
Like I never have before
Lord, I need You more and more, Jesus
Let me touch You and see if You are real

When I listen to the words of this song, it seems reasonable to want to experience Jesus. However, His piercing question, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”, makes me question why should I feel the need to touch Him?

In this moment I am convicted by my obsession with experiencing God with my physical senses? Why do I need to see, hear, or feel Jesus to believe in Him?

Like Thomas, and his fellow disciples, why do I need to see the nail prints in the hands of the crucified Christ, before I will believe I’m in the presence of the risen Savior? (John 20:25-28)

Jesus’ response to Thomas’ need to see, was…
“You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” – John 20:29 NLT

I believe one of the most heartbreaking things Jesus said to His disciples, and still says to us today is, “You have such little faith!” (Matthew 8:26 & Matthew 14:31)

It’s not a coincidence that Jesus’ stinging indictment came in response to Him yet again addressing the storms that made the disciples doubt. Even in today’s scripture, despite Jesus’ disappointed question, He healed the father’s son. (John 4:49-53)

This exchange reminds me of another one, where a father asked Jesus to cast out an evil spirit possessing his son, which the disciples couldn’t. Luke 9:38‭-‬42 (NLT) recounts…
A man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child. An evil spirit keeps seizing him, making him scream. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It batters him and hardly ever leaves him alone. I begged your disciples to cast out the spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you and put up with you?” Then he said to the man, “Bring your son here.” As the boy came forward, the demon knocked him to the ground and threw him into a violent convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy. Then he gave him back to his father.

Notice, despite Jesus’ scathing rebuke of the faithlessness of the people watching Him, He still healed the man’s boy.

This just showed me something alarming. We fixate so much on what we want to be done in our lives that we pay little to no regard to who we’re asking to do it. And as I think about it more, we can even become rude in the way we approach Him. For example, I would argue Mary and Martha were rude when they told Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died” (John 11:21 & John 11:32)

Never let your disappointment lead to doubting and disrespecting interactions with Jesus. And if you do doubt or disrespect Him, don’t confuse His unfailing, undeserved, unbiased love response to your unfaithfulness as anything other than His Unmerited Favor!

Today the Holy Spirit is challenging us to mature from binge watching Jesus to satisfy our wants, to believing in and worshipping Him solely for who He is!

When’s the last time you just checked in with God, with no personal agenda. I mean, just spent time extoling who He is? Read Psalm 8 & Psalm 100 for inspiration on just loving on God for who He is!

Rather than asking God for a blessing today, try reciting Psalm 34:1 (KJV)…
I will bless the LORD at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Believe in Jesus because of who He is, not because of what He’s done, is doing or will do.

Today’s song is…
Because Of Who You Are

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)