Dealing With Doubt

Have you ever had to wrestle with doubt? Times when you silently question the spiritual truths you believe? Times when you wonder if the Bible is true and God is loving, fair, and omnipotent, then why are things still so hard in your life and the lives of others around you? The questions linger: "Why am I still sick?" "Why am I still unemployed?" and on and on.

While most Christians would consider it blasphemous to voice these thoughts, the reality is that some people struggle with these and similar questions in the privacy of their own minds. Some of these people are seated in the church pews every Sunday. In some ways they are like the man who brought his son who had a "dumb spirit" whom Jesus' disciples could not cast out, but when the father stood before Jesus he asked of Him, "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us" (Mark 9:22b, KJV). The narrative continues, "Jesus said, 'If? There are no 'ifs' among believers. Anything can happen.' No sooner were the words out of His mouth than the father cried, 'Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!'" (vv. 23-24, The Message).

The fact that Jesus' disciples had failed caused the father to question Jesus' ability. However, Jesus turned the situation around by reminding the man that the issue was not His [God's] ability, but rather the lack of faith on the part of the one asking. In other words, with God all things are possible but do we have the faith to believe that? It is important to understand that belief is not a matter of mental assent or agreement, but rather a conviction in one's heart. Someone once said, "Until you believe the truth in your heart, all you have is information." Yes, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; nothing is impossible with Him, but is that truth in our heads or has it taken root in our hearts?

What we believe in our hearts will manifest itself in our thoughts, actions, and attitudes. The next time you find yourself doubting and worrying, ask yourself what is it that you truly believe. God is not intimidated by shaky faith and He can handle doubts, for He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). We want to believe, we say we believe, but doubt saps the life out of our faith. However, God's abilities do not wane because we have trouble believing. He is who He say He is. Once we move that truth from our heads to our hearts, we have it on good authority that nothing in accordance with the will of God will be impossible to us (1 John 5:14-15). Still not sure? Just ask Jesus. You can trust whatever He tells you.

You Are What You Believe

Have you ever felt like an eagle among chickens? You feel so much God given potential within you yet it seems you are always in the company of chickens, running around like a chicken, instead of soaring to the skies like an eagle. As a matter of fact you start doubting what is inside of you, choosing instead to believe you are like everybody else; you are where you belong. I came across the following story, author unknown, which highlights this dilemma.

"Once upon a time, there was a large mountainside, where an eagle's nest rested. The eagle's nest contained four large eagle eggs. One day an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down the mountain, to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect and care for the eagle's egg, so an old hen volunteered to nurture and raise the large egg.

One day, the egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Sadly, however, the eagle was raised to be a chicken. Soon, the eagle believed he was nothing more than a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family, but his spirit cried out for more. While playing a game on the farm one day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring in the skies. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds." The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar with those birds. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar."

The eagle continued staring, at his real family up above, dreaming that he could be with them. Each time the eagle would let his dreams be known, he was told it couldn't be done. That is what the eagle learned to believe. The eagle, after time, stopped dreaming and continued to live his life like a chicken. Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away.

The moral of the story: You become what you believe you are; so if you ever dream to become an eagle follow your dreams, not the words of a chicken."

We who have the spirit of God are meant to soar above our circumstances. Like the eagle, we use the winds of adversity to lift our wings above the storms. However, it is important to know what is within us. It was never God's intention that we scratch out an existence, living lives of constant defeat. In Isaiah 40:28-31 we read, "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (KJV).

Despite what others may say about us, in the end we are what we believe we are. Let us believe God and trust what He has placed inside of us. We were meant to fly.

Only For a Season

Elijah had just delivered God's judgment to King Ahab that there would be no rain in Israel until he (Elijah) said so, right after which God told him: "Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there" (2 Kings 17:3-4, KJV). This sure sounded like he would be settled in for the long haul! It is interesting to note that Elijah did not make prior preparations for himself even though he knew what was coming. There was no borrowing of pots and pans to store water for a season. Rather, he did exactly as the Lord told him "and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook" (v. 6).

We do not know how long he was there for, but what we know is that "after a while . . . the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee" (vv. 7-9). So far, everything had gone exactly as God had said. What we want to note, however, are the following - it was God who had sent him to the brook; the brook dried up; it was time for him to move again. Why didn't God simply bring food to Elijah where he was by other means? For sure, that wasn't a big deal for a God who had demonstrated on Mount Carmel that He was the God of everything. I would like to suggest that this wasn't about God, but Elijah. Would he trust God in a situation where he had nothing else to fall back on? His season at the spot was over. God's faithfulness would continue to and beyond Zarephath.

Life really is about seasons. In Ecclesiastes 3:1 we read, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" and there are times when God have us walk a certain path that is meant to last only for a season. However, we can become so comfortable by our dried-up brook reflecting on the way things were that we fail to trust God with the next step. Maybe we are expecting Him to do something in a way He has done it before, yet being God, He can do anything in whatever way He chooses. For Elijah, the famine was not over but his season by the brook was. Had he stayed by the brook he would have died from starvation. His blessing, food, and sustenance was now commanded in Zarephath and in order to claim it he had to leave where he was. A dried-up brook could be a failed relationship, a failed friendship, a job loss, or some other unexpected challenge. Regardless of whatever it is, it could be that your blessing has been commanded elsewhere. All of this assumes no violation of God's Word, for He will not give an instruction that conflicts with His Word.

If God has demonstrated His faithfulness in your life, you can trust Him with your next step. He knows what He is doing.

"Not this man [Jesus], but Barabbas"

As Jesus stood with Pilate, Pilate looked at Him with disbelief and skepticism. How could this man be the king of the Jews as they had charged? An itinerant preacher moving from place to place in the cities with people who were willing to follow Him was not a crime. More importantly, He was not a threat to Rome. He was not like the other freedom fighters the Roman army had to fight with as they tried to liberate themselves and their nation from the oppression of Roman rule. Albert Barnes in his commentary writes, "He [Pilate] regarded him, clearly, as a fanatic poor, ignorant, and deluded, but innocent and not dangerous." And so being satisfied that Jesus was not a king, at least not in the sense in which He was accused by His fellow Jews, and therefore not a threat to the establishment, Pilate declared Him innocent.

It was the custom then that at Passover one prisoner would be pardoned (John 18:38). Pilate sought to have Jesus released under this custom, but the crowd would have none of it. The narrative tells us, "Then cried they all again, saying, 'Not this man, but Barabbas.' Now Barabbas was a robber" (v. 40). The last four words in that verse -- "Now Barrabbas was a robber" -- present an interesting contrast in that he was not just a robber, but one of the freedom fighters. In the eyes of the crowd shouting his name, Barrabas, unlike Jesus, had tried to do something for them. Like the other freedom fighters, he was regarded as a hero. It wasn't that long ago that Jesus was seen as such by some of these same people, for when they heard that He was coming to Jerusalem for the Passover, they "took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." (John 12:13). Somewhere between then and that first Good Friday, they grew disappointed with Jesus as the promised Messiah. He failed to liberate them from the Romans and clearly had no such intentions. Faced with the choice between a freedom fighter and the Son of God, they chose the freedom fighter.

Today as we celebrate another Good Friday, we are faced with the same choice. Have we become disappointed with Jesus? Has He failed to "deliver" what we expected of Him? Did we expect that our bank accounts would always be healthy? That hardships would be a thing of the past? That our journey through this life would be easy? Because if that is what we expected when we accepted Him, then we would have missed the real reason He came into the world. John tells us, "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16), and so to that end, "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed [made whole]" (Isaiah 53:5). He came to restore, to heal, the relationship between God and man and it was only through His sacrificial death on the cross could this be made possible.

Our outward circumstances may not reflect our inner realities. As we reflect on and celebrate the death of Jesus, let us remember there was a resurrection three days later. But today we look at the cross in the middle with much thanksgiving, for in that bloody spectacle is our redemption. We should have been the ones on that cross, but He came and took our place. He paid the debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. He paid the price on our behalf that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Like the Apostle Paul we too can say, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).

"Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man [Jesus], but Barabbas." Who is your choice?