I’ll believe it when I see it.
Doubt it.
Sure, when pigs fly.
We’ve all heard these sayings, or even said them ourselves. It is our skepticism. We have learned that we shouldn’t take things at face value, we shouldn’t pay up front and in full for large projects, we need to check reviews and recommendations, and if it’s just too good to be true - it isn’t true. These are some of the rules we live by because we don’t want to be cheated or scammed. Therefore, we have a hard time trusting and almost always ask for reassurance. For good reason, most would say. The news is consistently filled with warnings about the latest scam artist preying on the trustworthiness of good people, and we are always warned to do our due diligence and our homework in checking up on someone’s background.
So isn’t it only natural, after being taught to look for proof, that we would ask for it when we were told something amazing?
Maybe that’s why Zechariah in the first chapter of Luke asks the angel Gabriel “How can I be sure?” Gabriel had just delivered some amazing news - he was going to be a father! His wife’s prayers were being answered and in their old age they would finally know the joy of having a child. Perhaps we can understand Zechariah’s hesitance. He and Elizabeth had been together for a very long time and they had tried and tried and tried - and now they were old. They had passed their window. After so much let down, so much anguish, how could he be sure his prayers were finally being answered?
It should’ve been enough that a real-life angel of God was standing in front of him.
That reason, just that one, is both amazing and incredible. Zechariah was having a conversation with an angel. Not another priest, not a prophet - a real angel. Gabriel. Zechariah was blessed to be standing in the presence of a piece of heaven and he had the audacity to ask “How can I be sure?”
For parents who have struggled with fertility, they may understand a little better the caution and doubt Zechariah felt after having struggled to have a child for so long. Yet as a priest and a righteous man, “righteous in the sight of God” (Luke 1.6), you would think he would be good at taking God at his word.
This isn’t the only story of doubt in the Bible - Doubting Thomas, anyone? Thomas had to touch the wounds of Jesus before he believed. Again, arguments could be made for Thomas there as well, but that’s a different post. All throughout the history of God’s people, they/we have doubted again and again and again. Yet time and time again God has proved he is faithful and - get this - trustworthy.
So why do we, in modern times, do the same thing as our predecessors? Why do we doubt? When Zechariah asked “How can I be sure?” he was rewarded (or punished) with an inability to speak until his child, John the Baptist, was born and named. Gabriel called him out on his incredulity and says “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” (Luke 1.19-20). Gabriel takes a minute to essentially say, “are you serious? Do you know who I am? I have good news and you want to know how you can be sure? Is it not enough that I am an angel sent from the Most High to bring you news that you should be shouting for joy over?”
I wonder how Zechariah felt when he returned to Elizabeth, unable to speak to her but knowing that God was serious - they would have that baby. I imagine a mixture of joy, remorse, and probably awe. He was going to be blessed with a son, but he had made a fool of himself by not believing God, and how incredible was his God that he could give and take a way without so much as a whisper of the wind.
We read about amazing promises God fulfills, giant floods, a rescue from the Egyptians, wars won by a boy with a sling shot - He has done fantastic works that quite literally have books written about them. So when we think of these promises, we understand how the people of the time experience doubt, but then we - with perfect hindsight - are able to say “they should have believed! Of course God delivered!” So, why do we want proof of the simplest of God’s promises.
God loves you. “God, why have you let this happen to me?”
God will take care of you. “God, why have you let this happen to me?”
God knows what is best for you. “God, why is this happening to me?”
God will protect you. “God, why is this happening to me?”
God will never leave you. “God, where are you?”
How many of our prayers are us asking for something, or begging for something. Now I believe that Our Father wants to hear those prayers, he wants to hear all our prayers, but I also believe those prayers should begin and end with “Your will be done.”
For me, I want to trust Him and His plan without reservation. I want to be able to go into each day knowing that he will provide for me exactly what I need when I need it. The difficulty lies in the disagreement between Him and I about what exactly it is that I need. So when I think my needs aren’t being met - I shouldn’t be asking for proof that He is really taking care of me, I should be examining my so-called needs. And when I ask Him for something, I shouldn’t need proof that he will take care of my requests, I should be trusting that He has dealt with them in His time and according to His will.
I suppose, what I really need, is to work on trusting my Father, without ever demanding proof that he hasn’t left me. After all, the Word of God says He will never leave me - so why would I ever have reason to believe the contrary?
As always - I am but a work in progress.
Cheers.