This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of Stormproof – Downpours of Doubt (CLICK HERE)
What do I do with my doubts?
Doubts will come.
The question is, “What will I do with my doubts?”
Every doubt needs some additional input to move from doubt to certainty.
If a product makes a claim in an advertisement, you may choose to buy the product and try it yourself. If the product does what it claims, you move from doubt to certainty about the product. If it does not do what it claims, you move from doubt to certainty about not buying the product again.
If I hear something from a political candidate that seems like an over-inflated claim, I can seek additional reporting, information, or first-hand witness to try to bring certainty to the doubt.
But sometimes getting new information is not easy or takes more time than we feel it’s worth. So we do nothing with our doubts and remain a skeptic.
Perhaps this can work in the product and political world, but not in the faith world.
Unsettled doubts tend to remain unsettled doubts. We can easily allow doubts to weaken the faith we have.
For example, if one doubts that Jesus ever lived, it would be hard to have a firm conviction that he is Savior. If one doubts that the miracles of Jesus are real, including his resurrection, it would be difficult to believe he is the Son of God.
Satan loves when we dismiss doubts and remain in uncertainty. Because every doubt is a foothold for a lie of Satan. Satan loves to take our doubts and move them to the realm of convicted unbelief.
Doubts will come, and doubts desire an answer.
The question is, “Where will I seek an answer to my doubts?”
As mentioned before, I can have first hand experience with a product or research the credibility of a political claim, but perhaps it’s hard with some of the doubts that come in my faith life. Let me offer these three action steps:
- Take them to the Lord in prayer!
If there is some aspect of your faith that has you doubting, let God know about it. Like a child who asks a parent for answers, so a child of God can let his/her heavenly Father know the questions with which they are struggling. He wants to be involved in moving your heart from doubt to certainty.
2. Go to the Word of God for truth and certainty about God.
Often time a parent says to a child, “What did I tell you?” when they have asked a question multiple times and still are struggling to accept the answer. God directs us back to his holy Word recorded from Genesis to Revelation that has as a primary focus communicating the message of salvation through Jesus, but also has a primary purpose of bringing certainty to our doubts. The Apostle John writes:
John 20:30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
3. Seek godly wisdom from a trusted, Christian friend.
Sometimes we are comforted by other people’s questions and spiritual journey to answers. Christian friends often wrestle with similar doubts. Hearing the journey God took them on to bring them to certainty can be helpful to a doubter. Even though Thomas had a hard time believing his disciple friends, they were there to lead him toward certainty. Jesus finished the task. Who knows where Thomas would have gone, if he didn’t stay close to his disciple friends. It’s friends like these that we need to lead us to understand God’s truth.
Doubts will come. Don’t let them separate you from God, but rather use them as an excuse to lean into God. Don’t be surprised when God honors that seeking and replaces your doubt with certainty!
Apply: Of the three suggested activities to help overcome doubts in our faith life, which have you used and which haven’t you? How might this help to bring certainty to any doubts you have.
Prayer: Lord, you know the doubts with which I struggle. Lead me to the solid teaching of your Word and the Christian friends that can be used by you to replace every doubt with certainty! AMEN.