If you have ever gone down a stream in a canoe when the water was shallow you will understand me when I say, it is a very difficult thing to do. The idea is to be in deep water so the canoe can carry you. But when the water is shallow, you must carry the canoe, drag it, expelling all your strength. Great faith is like a deep flowing river that carries you over the rocks. That is a nice way to go but is faith easy? We read our Bibles and see great faith, it cannot be helped. Matthew, John, great faith, Peter, great faith, and John the baptizer. All these face the wrath of the Jews, and Romans and suffered many things because of their great faith, even death. But did you know there was a time when they didn’t believe? No, not before Jesus came, not just while He was with them, but after His crucifixion and burial. On the first day of the week when Mary and the others came to the tomb they came with spices they prepared to finish anointing the body, not expecting to see Him risen. Along the way they were saying among themselves who will roll away the stone (Mk 16:1-8; Lk 24:1-12). They were not expecting to see Jesus alive. John records the women ran back and told Simon Peter, and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him” (John 20:2). After that they didn’t go out looking for a risen Lord–they “went away again to their own homes” (v.10). That same evening we read “when the doors were shut where the disciples were [e]assembled, for fear of the Jews…” (v.19). The point is those who were closest to the LORD didn’t believe Him even after hearing many times, “on the third day I will rise”. This is important to us because we must have faith to be saved, but how can we believe if we weren’t there to see first hand? Because seeing cannot, nor has it ever produced substantive faith. That old saying, seeing is believing, doesn’t hold water. Fact is, faith only comes by hearing God’s word (Rom. 10:17). The truth is, when it comes to faith, believing is seeing.