My Lord and my God
That you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
And that through believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31
Read John 20:24—29
I live among people who are firm, I would say solid, brick-hard in belief. And among those who are just as resolute unbelievers. And then there are those who are neither. Jesus figures for them as one of the options, or part of a shifting mythology, perhaps a spiritual symbol. But he has not impacted them in such a way that they have knelt down and declared with fierce conviction, ‘My Lord and my God.’ Once anyone has said that, all other options turn into mythologies around this solid centre. And I am helpless to make this happen for another person. All I can do is pray for them. All I can do is bear witness as to how he has made himself known to me.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, risen, alive, bearing on your hands the scars of my sin and shame, in your side the mark of the life-blood poured out for the world, I thank you that you made yourself known to those who saw you. I thank you that you make yourself known to those who never saw you. I thank you that you have done that for me, that I, too, can say, ‘My Lord and my God.’ I pray for my wavering, dubious friends, and for my wavering, dubious witness to them. May they also be given this greatest of all privileges, move from uncertainty, and say with joy, with abandon, ‘My Lord and my God.’