Doubt is one of the most powerful forces that we have to deal with. No matter how much we claim to trust completely in God and His goodness, there are times where all of us are faced with doubt. We wonder if things are really going to work out. We wonder where God is at in our times of trouble. Today, you can slam the door on doubt in your life. Learn more about what it means to kick doubt out of your life.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could live a life that was completely free of doubt? Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to be possible. The funny thing about doubt is that it can significantly limit you, but it’s also something that is always present. It’s easy to let yourself feel guilty for experiencing doubt, but even the disciples of Christ had moments where they weren’t quite sure that things were going to work out the way that they had hoped. Yes, Jesus reproved them for their doubt, but He never gave up on them. Instead, He used their moments of doubt as a way of reinforcing their faith.
Where are the areas in your life where you feel like doubt is winning? Are you facing financial uncertainty and you’re wondering how you’re going to make it through the next cycle of bills? Perhaps you’re dealing with a damaged relationship, and you’re wondering if God is ever going to bring things back together. Maybe you’re doubting that you’re capable of fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. No matter what type of doubt you’re facing, it can leave you paralyzed with fear and questioning the tenants of your faith that you know to be true.
Can you really overcome doubt? Absolutely! Kicking doubt out doesn’t necessarily mean that you will never have a moment where you doubt. Instead, it means that doubt will not be the prevailing force in your life. Today, look to Scripture for the steps that you need to take in order to overcome doubt. Scripture is ripe with stories of men and women who experienced doubt but refused to let it hold them back from the things that God wanted to do in their lives. The same God who empowered the heroes of the Bible with the strength that they needed in order to overcome doubt is alive and working inside you.
Thomas
John 20:24-25 (TPT)
One of the twelve wasn’t present when Jesus appeared to them-it was Thomas, whose nickname was “the Twin.” So the disciples informed him, “We have seen the Lord with our own eyes!” Still unconvinced, Thomas replied, “There’s no way I’m going to believe this unless I personally see the wounds of the nails in his hands, touch them with my finger, and put my hand into the wound of his side where he was pierced!”
No study on overcoming doubt would be complete without a discussion about Thomas. Unfortunately, thousands of years later, we still often refer to him as “Doubting Thomas.” That’s unfortunate, especially considering he was one of the hand-picked 12 disciples of Christ. However, after the death of Christ, Thomas had a crisis of faith. Somewhere along the way, he allowed doubt to enter his heart, and he questioned the decisions that he had made over the previous three-plus years.
Also, Thomas wasn’t present with the disciples on the first Easter Sunday. When Peter and John raced to the tomb and found it empty, the immediately went back to the room where the disciples were hiding. They were all afraid that they would be killed next, so they had locked themselves in an upper room. We don’t know where Thomas was, but we know he wasn’t there. Perhaps he was somewhere reevaluating what the rest of his life was going to look like. Maybe he had made the decision to go back to being a fisherman like he was before he became a disciple.
One of the most important aspects of overcoming doubt in your own life is found in being connected with other believers. Thomas allowed doubt to creep in largely because he wasn’t with other believers when they found out about the resurrection. In the same way, when we disconnect from other believers in Christ, we run the risk of letting doubt overtake us.
Relationships with other believers help you see the hand of God actively working in their lives. It’s easy to read the Bible and say, “Yes, God did those things, but those people were heroes of the faith!” When you spend time connected with other Christians, you can hear their testimonies of God’s provision and goodness actively working in the lives of His people today.
“I’ll Believe it When I See It”
1 Samuel 17:32-33 (NLT)
“Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!” “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way that you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”
The story of David and Goliath is one of the most familiar stories found in Scripture. Countless movies, TV shows, and stories have drawn on the principle of the “underdog” winning against someone bigger, faster, and stronger than them. However, the story of David and Goliath is ultimately about a young man who refused to let doubt win in his life.
We live in a world that teaches an “I’ll believe it when I see it” mindset. However, faith requires us to see it even before it happens, whatever “it” is.
In order for David to have the kind of faith that he needed to have in order to overcome Goliath, he had to focus on the things he had seen God do in his life. He allowed what he had seen in the past to help him see what hadn’t happened yet.
In the verses that followed the conversation we just read between David and King Saul, David spoke about times in his shepherding career in which lions and bears had come and taken sheep from his flock. God supernaturally strengthened David so he could kill those animals and take his sheep back. David used those faith-building moments as a way to remove any doubt that he could overcome Goliath.
The second aspect of kicking out doubt is to look at times in your life where you’ve seen God do the miraculous. When you do that, you have something that you can point to which increases your faith and diminishes your doubt.
God Doesn’t Ignore Us When We Doubt
Mark 9:23-24 (NLT)
“What do you mean, ‘If I can?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief.”
Finally, this story points to the fact that God doesn’t require us to completely overcome doubt in order to have Him answer our prayers. The father who came to Jesus in this story needed a miracle for his son to be healed. He initially asked Jesus if He was able to heal his child. Jesus pointed out that He was capable of doing anything. The man said that he believed, but he still had some doubt. Jesus didn’t punish him for his doubt. Instead, He chose to give the man his miracle in the face of his unbelief.
Don’t let your doubt hold you back from asking God to do the miraculous in your life. You don’t have to “have it all together” or have some kind of superhuman faith. God understands that humans have doubts, and He chooses to bless us anyway.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to overcome the kind of doubts that I feel in my life. I know that You are capable of doing anything, but just like the father that You heard in Mark, I need Your help to overcome the unbelief that I still experience. Surround me with people who can build up my faith and help me to recall times in my life in which I’ve seen Your hand at work. In Christ’s name, Amen.