In all our endeavors, at every turn, we have people in our lives who continually insist on us proving ourselves.
“If you love me then…”, our beloved would say.
“If you are really that good then… “, our prospects would also say.
I could go on and on but I have a feeling that you already get the direction I’m headed. You can even come up with some of these “proof statements” from your own experiences.
It was no different with Jesus in His temptation after having fasted 40 days and nights in the wilderness. The tempter asked that He proved Himself to be the Son of God. That wasn’t difficult; Jesus could easily have done that. In fact, doing just this single proof exercise would not only have proved His Sonship but also satisfied His hunger. After all, He was only expected to change stones to bread.
But here comes the caveat in our proving experiences… the intent and character of the one requesting for proof. Jesus knew that the devil knew who He was. Not only that, the tempter had tried on numerous occasions to destroy Him even when He was a baby- helpless and innocent. Why then did he need a proof? Surely, Jesus knew that the one who wanted His destruction wouldn’t be the least interested in His survival so much as to want to see His hungered body nourished. From all perspectives, nothing good could ever come out of the devil wanting Jesus to prove Himself Son of God.
Oftentimes the seeking of proof is, in itself, the admission of doubt. And some doubts never go away no matter the number of times we present proof. I see doubts in two ways; good doubt and bad doubt. A good doubt needs only one proof to believe but a bad one never gets enough of proof. In fact, for such doubt, one proof only begets multitudes of doubts and that defeats the very intent of our presenting proof. Come on, who wants to present proof just to amplify doubts!
Discerning the intent of the proof seeker helps you know exactly what you’re dealing with- good doubt or bad doubt. In the instance of Jesus’ temptation, He had just been affirmed as the Beloved Son of God at His baptism and the tempter knew that. Again, I think that some proof seekers are only there to undermine who we really are. They try to find loopholes and create some loops on their own when they don’t find any.
Jesus had the testimony of the Father and that was enough for Him. He needed no further proof to establish His Sonship. Just one truth from the Father was enough.
These are the times where the blessedness of believing without seeing is so pronounced. It’s a quiet assurance, a peace and contentment with who the Creator made you to be. If the Creator made you beautiful, don’t waste your time trying to prove how beautiful you are; just be yourself because you are beautiful. You don’t need 999 hashtags or likes on social media to prove your beauty. There’ll always be doubters no matter how hard you try to prove yourself beautiful.
Be secure in your identity. Your identity isn’t something to prove, it’s something to hold fast to. It’s not something you place on the dissection table; it’s something you keep in your treasure purse. When you know and do this, life will be much more stable for you and you can confidently ease your way through its challenges.
Restpiration 