Dealing With Doubt

Do you ever struggle with doubt? You do if you’re honest.

The reality is that no one’s faith is perfect in this life. But, we can grow and become stronger today than we were yesterday.

I like to think of doubt as the gap between our current faith and perfect faith. One of my favorite Bible verses is Matt17:20

He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there and it will move,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Sometimes we doubt our salvation; other times we doubt God’s love. Many times we will even doubt the reliability of the Bible, the existence of God, or the identity of Christ. Even John the Baptist doubted Jesus (Matthew 11:11), he doubted the very identity of Christ.

Here are a few principles to consider when dealing with doubt.

Let’s face it life is tough, every day we have to put our noses to the grindstone. And it’s easy to have doubts. If we’re not careful all of our faith flies out the window.

1. Have Metcy On Your Doubt

Jude 22 tells us to “have mercy on those who boubt” (including ourselves). It’s easy to judge, condemn, and look down on the doubters. And Lord knows I’m the hardest on myself. But to have mercy on those who doubt is to be there for them, and build them up.

Many times it isn’t just an overnight bout with doubt that ends after a good night’s sleep. Sometimes doubt can last a lifetime. It’s just our nature. It seems like we have to deal with the same doubts over and over again.

2. Realize doubt is often the birth pangs of a deeper faith.

Many people have faith in meditated through our parents who they trusted implicitly. As they become older, their faith is tested through trials, temptations, and suffering (Job; Luke. 8:5-15; Romans 5:3-4; James 1:3).

But it is often true that during our 20’s and 30’s. We start to reconsider whether those truths we have might be wrong in order to embrace our faith more deeply.

3. Be Ready To Live With Mystery

Sometimes we want all the answers. We want complete understanding before we commit to anything. That’s where the doubt comes in. If we read the Bible God has revealed so much to us, and there is much we can understand if we spend time in His Word. But there are secrets that belong to Him alone (Deuteronomy 29:29). We will never be able to comprehend how God created everything. But, luckily we can comprehend enough for us to rest in God when mystery arises.

4. Make The Main Things The Main Things

Paul told the Corinthians he delivered to them things ‘of first importance’ (1 Corinthians 15:3). He goes on to talk about the atoning death and vindicating resurrection of Jesus as being most central to faith.

So many of us doubt secondary issues like how and when God created the world or the details of Jesus’s return. There has been many issues about this legitimate disagreement for centuries. But, there has always been unity in the basic truths of who He is and what He did.

So, when you begin doubting what you were taught about all the secondary issues, don’t get to bent out of shape. And keep focusing on the important things.

5. Live According To The Faith You Still Have

Doubt is not unbelief . Doubt is the bridge that connects faith to perfect faith. And that bridge will stand until our death of Jesus’s return. When we go through a faith crisis, though, we don’t naturally see things this way. Doubt enters in and infects our lives on a conscious level, we may interpret it as ourright unbelief. Our brains don’t know how else to process it. We think we’re on an inevitable road to complete unbelief. We need to focus on the “heaven and hell issues.”

Unfortunately, since we think this way, and since others may treat us as if we have the plague, we begin to live as unbelievers. If sin were not the instigating problem before, it becomes the chronic problem now. It’s important for those struggling with doubt to not let thief doubt influence their lives and begin to living like unbelievers. It’s probably a good idea to repent and stay in fellowship with God.

6. Doubt Your Doubts

Why give your doubt a courtesy you don’t give your faith? Are our doubts so compelling that it can’t be questioned?

We have no problem being critical about our doubt, we need to make sure we are critical of our doubt as well. Doubt usually doesn’t offer up a better solution; it just nags at the one we already have. But, it important to be sure that the central truths of our faith will never put way our doubt.

7. Work Through The Sin In Your Life

When we focus on our sins, it helps us find a quick solution. I usually find that when I focus on turning away from my sins. My doubt goes away. But, obviously doubt is a more complicated

Personal sin is a faith-drainer. And disobedience to God will take a significant toll on your faith.

We’re all sinners, but some sins take a unique toll on our mind and worldview- especially when we attempt to justify them. The toll is not only moral, social, and physical; it also corrupts the mind. The mental paradigm we construct to make our sin acceptable with corrupt everything else.

In other ward, if there’s something you know you’re supposed to be doing and your not doing it, doubt will soon creep in, and your crisis of faith will be hard to overcome. It’s important to ask ourselves periodically is some deep rooted sin might be causing the doubt.

I have found that there are primarily two types of doubters. The First are walking away from God and believe they’re finding freedom. And the second, are walking away from faith and are deeply disturbed about it. The difference with the second is that they are always facing God, and crying with arms outstretched for Him to help. Thankfully, in most cases these doubters eventually return to their faith.

We always, to some degree, live in the land of doubt. But it’s possible that your particular land of doubt is still within the in the country of faith. Doubting your faith does not mean you don’t have faith. Jude 22 says we should have mercy on those who doubt, whether that doubt is in ourselves or others. We need to do so.