Pastafarians, worshipers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, created their religion to mock Christians, declaring that there’s as much evidence for faith in the FLM as there is for our faith in God. But that simply is not true. There’s much evidence just in creation to prove our faith (Romans 1:18-20).
I. Luke 7:20-23. John, who was so sure of who Jesus was (Matthew 3:13-14, John 1:29-34), must have begun to have doubts while he languished in Herod’s prison. When his followers came and told him all that they had seen and heard Jesus doing, he sent them to ask Jesus if indeed He was the expected Messiah. Jesus pointed to the evidence of what John had seen and heard to not lose faith.
II. Philippians 3:7-16. We’ve not had John’s calling as a prophet or seen the Holy Spirit come upon Jesus, so how much more do we struggle to overcome doubts in the midst of trials? God gives us strategies to do so:
a. Realize that with so much evidence, it is not a blind faith that we have.
b. Value struggles as a way that God is disciplining and growing us (Hebrews 12:4-13).
c. Rest in the faith of the great cloud of witnesses of the past and present (Hebrews 11:1–12:3).
d. Remind yourself of what you have seen and heard. Keep an answered-prayer journal or, as the songs tells us, “Count your many blessings, See what God has done.”
III. Matthew 28:18-20. It’s not enough to just encourage ourselves by what we have seen and heard. Jesus wants us to “go and make disciples” with it, becoming part of the great cloud of witnesses for others to see and hear!