All of us face times of doubt where we don’t know what’s coming next. These moments of doubt leave us frightened, anxious, and questioning our faith. On one hand, we struggle with guilt when we doubt God’s goodness in our lives, but on the other, we often worry about what’s coming next. If you are battling against doubt today, consider applying these Scriptural principles to your life. Doing so will help you effectively deal with doubt.
“Is it a sin to doubt God?” That is one of the most popular questions that gets tossed around among Christians. We know that the Bible says God is faithful, God is good, and God is for us. We stand on Scriptural promises of His divine protection and His commitment to see us through the darkest times in our lives. Unfortunately, when we’re facing those dark times, we typically allow doubt to creep in.
Since the dawn of creation, sin has given way to shame. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they realized that they were naked, and they were ashamed. Before the entrance of sin into the world, shame didn’t exist. When we doubt God and associate that doubt with sin, we then experience the same kind of shame that Adam and Eve did.
Before we dive into today’s study on how to deal with doubt, we need to better understand the relationship between doubt and sin.
God is not looking to punish us for having moments of doubt. There are countless examples in Scripture of Godly people doubting Him, and God still moving in their situations. The same God who spoke the world into existence and has made the planets hang on nothing is certainly strong enough to endure our moments where we wonder where He is and if He is truly working in our lives. However, that doesn’t mean that He wants us to doubt.
The questions surrounding doubt and its relation to sin are plentiful. However, we can look to Scripture (and we’re going to in a moment) to better understand that God did not punish people who experienced doubt. Instead, doubt becomes sin when we allow our doubt to cause us to act in a sinful manner.
For instance, when you doubt God’s goodness in your life and try to take matters into your own hand, you run the risk of falling prey to sin. When we try to take control of a situation because we’re motivated by doubt, we make mistakes like Abraham and Sara did when they refused to wait on God’s perfect timing for their promised son.
If you struggle with fear and doubt, that’s not inherently sinful. Instead, when we allow that doubt to start putting distance between us and God, that’s when it becomes sin. Today, we’re going to learn how to use Scripture to overcome doubt, so it doesn’t have time or space to turn into sin.
What Causes Doubt?
Romans 11:33-35 (NLT)
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?
We don’t doubt because we know nothing about God. The Bible is filled with truths about His heart towards His people and His character. While it’s impossible for our minds to fully understand every detail of God, there is still plenty that we can know about Him. In the same way that God is knowable, He is also incomprehensible. One of the things that we cannot understand is the intricate way that He thinks.
There are numerous reasons for this. First, God is infinite in every way, and our minds are limited. We cannot grasp the idea of a divine being that is not limited by time or space, as everything we know and do is bound by those two principles. Those areas that we cannot understand often lead to doubt.
We know that God is great. That principle is often taught to us as children we learn how to pray by saying, “God is great, God is good.” We know there are passages of Scripture that declare that He is for us, He will help us, and He will defend us. Doubt creeps in when we start worrying about the details of how those promises are going to come to fruition.
We worry about things when we don’t know how they’re going to turn out in a way that makes sense to us in the moment. However, since God is not bound by our “moments,” He is able to put things together that work on our behalf without us realizing what is going on.
One of the first steps to overcoming the grips of doubt in your own life is to accept that you don’t always get to know what’s coming next. You don’t get to read the next chapter of your life’s story while you’re still living in the present chapter. However, God, who is the Author of our stories knows what’s next. Nothing that surprises us comes as any surprise to Him. When we embrace the fact that God is in our futures, and that He is rich in wisdom and knowledge, we can overcome doubt.
How Does God React to Doubt?
Matthew 11:4-5 (NLT)
Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen-the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”
John the Baptist had no recollection of the day that his mother, Elizabeth met with Mary while both of them were pregnant. The Bible says that on that day, John the Baptist was so overwhelmed by the presence of God that he “leapt in his mother’s womb.” He went out and preached about the coming Messiah, telling people to repent and embrace His arrival. However, when he heard about Jesus, he had some reservations.
He sent some of his own disciples to Christ to investigate matters further. It’s easy to assume that Christ would be offended that John the Baptist would question His Lordship. However, He didn’t. Instead, He simply told the disciples to go back to John the Baptist and tell them what they had seen and heard.
Thanks to Scripture, we have access to the same information that John the Baptist and his disciples had access to. While we may not have seen the miracles Christ referenced, you have undoubtedly seen God do some incredible things before.
When we recognize that Christ is willing to help us overcome our doubts through pointing to what He has done, we don’t have to experience the shame that we often subject ourselves to when we doubt.
Drown Out the Doubt
Psalm 13:3-6 (NLT)
Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall. But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because is good to me.
The Psalm that we just read begins with David doubting the goodness of God. He cries out to God, asking Him how much longer David will be forgotten by his Savior. By the end of the Psalm, David declares that He will rejoice and sing praises to God. David knew the value of using joy and praise to drown out the doubt that he was experiencing.
The best way to overcome doubt is to be filled with praise and reflection on the times when God has been faithful to you.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to overcome the doubt in my life. I know that You are working in my life and doing things that I can’t even see right now. Help me to focus more on the things that I’ve already seen You do than the things that I’m waiting for. In Christ’s name I ask these things, Amen.