A friend told me his baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, was going to win the World Series this year. I said, “I doubt it!”
A deacon lived across the street from the church. He was always late for services. One day he told me, “I’ll be early next week.” I said, “I doubt it.”
We all have doubts. We learn to doubt at an early age. We start out very trusting, believing everything, but by the time we’re adults, trust has worn thin and we’ve become experts at doubting people. We become skeptics. It’s no longer true until proven false; it’s false until proven true. We doubt people. We often have doubts about spiritual things. I do, and if you’re honest, you do too.
Perhaps you thought you were the only person who doubted. Possibly you think there’s something wrong with you because you have doubts. Actually, we’re in good company. Abraham, John the Baptist and Jesus’ disciple Thomas, had doubts. After the resurrection, Jesus showed himself to his followers. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. (John 21:17).
It is not wrong to have doubts, but it is dangerous to let those doubts go unresolved. Unresolved doubt can harm you emotionally, lead to inaction, create fear and harm your relationship with God.
There are three kinds of doubts – doubts of the mind, the heart and the will. We can overcome all these doubts.
1. GET THE FACTS
Most of us have asked, “Is God really there?” “Is Jesus God’s Son?” “Is Jesus God as he claimed?” “Did Jesus really die on the cross and the third day rise again?” These are doubts about the veracity and validity of Christianity. They are doubts of the mind.
People ask, “Is the Bible God’s Word and is it accurate and true?” “Do heaven and hell exist?” “Will people spend eternity in hell?” “Is Jesus the only way to God as Christians claim?”
It’s natural to have those kinds of questions. After all, we’re asked to believe in a God that we can’t see or touch, and believe a book written thousands of years ago.
To be honest, believing the God of the Bible is hard for a thinking person. It’s tough to put your faith in something you can’t touch or see and something that seems to be out-of-date. Doubts are natural and inevitable but you can deal with them.
Here’s the way: confront those doubts and look at the evidence. Get the facts. Biblical faith is not blind faith. God never asks us to park our brains in the garage and blindly follow him. The opposite is true. Bible faith is built on strong evidence. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope you have. (1 Peter 3:15). Get the evidence to support your faith.
A businessman wanted to buy a company, but before he did, he researched the company. He did a market study, consulted lawyers and accountants, made a financial plan and got the facts to support his decision. Those were the right things to do, for much was riding on his decision.
When there’s a lot at stake, you don’t jump blindly; you check the facts. And that’s the way it is with the gospel. God never asks you to believe without giving you a reason to believe. God expects you to have reasonable faith.
There are plenty of facts to show that faith in Jesus is reasonable. The answers to your doubts are there, if you’ll look for them. God is not upset by your honest doubts and he’s not afraid of your questions. God is concerned that your doubts will paralyze and immobilize you. He’s concerned your doubts will keep you from asking the right questions and therefore keep you from getting the answers you need, answers that will lead you to the life of faith.
Come to God with your questions. Say, “OK God, I need some solid evidence why I should believe Jesus is the Son of God. If I’m going to trust you, I need to know if these things are true.”
It’s ironic that we spend so much time investigating which car to purchase, yet so little time researching the facts about the one person who holds the answers to life and death.
The only way to get answers to doubts is to investigate the facts seriously. In matters of the Christian faith, I guarantee you, if you honestly search, you’ll eventually reach the point where you’ll say, “I see it. It makes sense. I have the answers I was looking for!”
If you will honestly check the facts, you’ll discover that Jesus is indeed the one he claims to be – the Son of God who died and rose again. You’ll discover he’s able to deliver on his promises. Investigate the facts and get the answers. You can read a book or go to someone who can help you. Remember, if Christianity is true, you can’t afford not to check it out!
2. EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE
Doubts of the heart can be even more troublesome than doubts of the mind. Doubts of the heart raise questions like these: Does God answer prayer? Does God want a relationship with me? Can God speak to me personally? Does God care about the routine affairs of my life? Does he know what’s best for me? Am I really important to God and is he really in ultimate control of all things? Could God ever use my life in a significant way? Could God forgive all my sins?
Some doubts come from believing we’re not deserving of God’s love. People think that God may love others but not me because I am insignificant.
To accept that God loves individually is difficult. The starting point in dealing with these doubts is to experience God’s love. God wants to speak to you through his word, to hear your prayers and to guide your life. When you experience his love, you won’t doubt him. One basic truth is at the heart of the gospel – God wants a personal relationship with you. This fact is so essential to the gospel, that when you start doubting this, you will doubt everything else. Everything else only has meaning when it’s connected to God’s desire to help, love, listen, instruct, strengthen and encourage you personally.
Doubts of the heart come because we have a wrong perception of God. To get rid of doubts of the heart, you have to see God for who he really is. It’s extremely important that your picture of God matches who God really is, that who you think God is, and who God actually is, are the same.
Have you ever had a preconceived notion about someone? Perhaps you knew someone from a distance and you drew certain conclusions about what that person was like. You thought, well she’s very stuffy, or, he’s very crude or he’s arrogant or she’s pushy. Those are just preconceived notions about someone you don’t know personally; they’re impressions you form from a distance. Later you had an opportunity to meet, spend some time together, and you came away feeling altogether differently. You say, “I sure was wrong about that person!”
Some of us have a picture of God that is all wrong and it needs to be shattered. Perhaps you’ve viewed God from a distance for so long that you have a preconceived idea of what he’s like, but you don’t really know the truth about God. Your preconceived ideas don’t match the reality of what he’s like.
Some people have a concept of God that says God is far away. Some people go to the point of saying God is so big and so far a way that he doesn’t know my name or want to have a relationship with me. They feel as if they’re just a blip on God’s heavenly computer screen. Some people think God isn’t interested in the routine events of life. Some people grow up thinking God is only concerned about church and that God just lives for Sundays. Some people believe he’s “up there,” just waiting for an opportunity to judge or punish us.
If we grow up believing these false concepts of God, they keep us from ever knowing God personally. One of Satan’s main tools is to confuse you about what God is really like. If the devil can convince you that God is impersonal, unloving, domineering, rule-oriented and demanding, you’re certainly not going to want to follow him.
However, if you see God for who he really is – loving, kind, wise, trustworthy, fair and gracious, you’ll gladly make the choice to follow him, because you’ll see him as a reliable, personal friend.
Many of us have doubts of the heart because we have a wrong picture about God. You need to get rid of that picture. I don’t blame a person for rejecting a God who is harsh and demanding. I can understand someone having doubts about a God who is austere and impersonal. But God is compassionate and loving and gracious and wants to be personal with you.
Throw out your misconceptions and accept the God of the Bible. When you see God as he really is, you’ll want to follow him.
To deal with doubts of the heart, destroy your incorrect image of God. Get to know the true God and let him reveal a correct picture of himself personally to you.
3. REMEMBER GOD’S TRACK RECORD
Some people don’t doubt the reality of God or his love for other people. They doubt whether God will love them and answer their prayers. They know God can heal people and does heal other people, but they wonder if God is willing to heal them. If you have enough doubts of the mind and heart, you’ll end up with doubts of the will.
How do you handle doubts of the will? You step out in faith and let God reveal himself to you. Get the facts. Understand what God is like. Respond with faith and trust him. Take the step to let God prove himself trustworthy and as you do, your doubts will disappear.
When you take the first step, you start a process of letting God reveal himself and his purposes to you. As you continue to trust him, God builds a track record of faithfulness in your life.
Today, I don’t have the doubts I once had. God has developed a track record with me. I’ve given God a chance to prove himself trustworthy in my life. When I reach a low point, I remember God’s record of faithfulness in caring for me.
I don’t doubt that the sun will come up in the morning; history shows it always happens.
In the same way, we need to let God establish a track record of faithfulness in our lives. The only way for that to happen is to trust him, to step out in faith and say “OK God, Show me!” If you’ll take a step towards God, God will show himself to you personally.
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