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If we feel that we cannot hack it even though we say we believe in Christ, it only means that our relationship with Him is not intimate enough, if not at all. Hence, we cannot really trust in Him to solve our troubles even though we have heard it and read it a hundred times. It is not how much we have heard or know but how much all these have translated into the daily relationship with Christ.

It is a love relationship that God has called us to and wants us to be more and more intimate with Christ each day. Such a relationship is not a matter of convenience, it is a matter of choice and one of love. We are in a love relationship with Christ because He loved us and gave Himself a propitiation for our sins. He is our Lord and Savior. We have acknowledged that many, many times. But has it translated into an intimate relationship with Christ. And if so, how intimate?

I want us to understand that believing in Jesus is not a head matter, it is a heart matter. It is one of a love relationship. It is one where we truly appreciate what Jesus did for us when He suffered and died for us on the cross. It is one where we can glorify and praise Him because He rose from the dead. It is one where it takes time to cultivate and nurture, just like any other love relationships we have on earth with our friends and family. Just how close are we with Christ will reveal to us how we handle our troubles. And Jesus knows the troubles we have right now.

Do we believe in Christ because we lifted our hands in an altar call? Or participated in a baptism? Or have been faithfully coming to church every Sunday? Or is it because we have come to know and started a love relationship with Christ? We can love because the Spirit has poured God’s love in our hearts. We love God because He loved us first. The love relationship has been initiated by God when He loved the world. Now when we believed in Jesus, that love relationship has just begun for us. We’ve only just begun to live. If you didn’t know that believing Jesus means this love relationship with Him, now you do. And don’t forget it.

So, let us now be honest with ourselves. There is really nothing to be ashamed of. Just how intimate are we in our love relationship with Jesus? Do we take Him as our casual friend? Someone we say hi and bye on a Sunday? Or perhaps we take Him as our Godfather, someone we go to when we need things to be fixed? Where are we really in our love relationship with Christ? This is truly an experience and not a head knowledge. This is a life to be experienced as we grow in love of Christ, not just of knowledge of Christ. Our knowledge must be translated to our lives so that what we know means something real to us and not make us grow in our head.

Listen to what else Jesus has to say. He said to the disciples that as He goes away, He is preparing a place and will return to take them there. You see, Jesus was telling them where and why He is going away but has promised to return again. In fact, Jesus is telling all of us that we have a place in heaven if we believe in Him and that He will come back for us one day. This is to console the disciples by letting them have knowledge of what He is going to do next and why.

After all that is said, Thomas, representing the disciples, still didn’t get it. Thomas said, “Huh? If we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way?”

The reply by Jesus must be one of the most memorized verse in the Bible. I’m sure you know it by hard. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” But do we really understand what He meant?