A big wave crashes down
And smothers you under the water
Had you only faith like Jesus
You would have been walking on the waves
But doubt crept in
And made you falter
Who can you trust
If you can’t even trust the One who saves?
A. C. McGuire, Poems & Prayers
1. We doubt God’s truthfulness
There may come a day when a believer begins to doubt the truthfulness of God’s word. If they have never been taught or if they have never searched for the validity of the gospels, this doubt is valid. If nothing is done about the questions that arise, Satan will use them to destroy the believers faith and trust in God. Satan comes quick, so we must act quicker. When we begin to doubt in God’s truthfulness, we must seek out as many resources as possible to answer our questions, pray, and voice our questions and concerns to our fellow Christians who may be able to help us. Otherwise, Satan will manipulate our doubt into more and more doubt until we don’t believe at all, and we find ourselves conformed to the world of foolish doubters and walking the path towards Hell.
2. We doubt God’s faithfulness
Whenever we’re going through a season of hardship, whenever we’re suffering or things just aren’t going the way we want them to, we always seem to doubt God’s faithfulness towards us. Especially when those times come with unanswered questions or prayers. If our prayers are not being answered the way we want them to be answered, we begin to doubt whether God is faithful to us or not. We start thinking, “Is He really listening? He can’t be since He isn’t answering me!”
When we instantly turn to doubting in God, rather than wondering why He may not be answering us (maybe He’s testing our faith or trying to teach us a lesson or trying to make sure we’re ready for the answers we seek) we fail to do the one thing we ought to do as Christians: trust in the Lord. We must never doubt in God’s faithfulness, for there is living proof of it in the Bible and in our every day lives. Every single person’s testimony is a declaration of God’s faithfulness to us. We must never waver in our faithfulness because God never wavers in His.
3. We doubt God’s goodness
We begin to doubt whether God is good when we allow the enemy to confuse our minds and when we allow the doubts of this world to overtake what we know to be true about God: that He is just and His wrath is right.
The more “humanistic” characteristics of God are the ones we question the most. Many times, I have heard people agree with the death sentence to someone who has done a horrendous crime… Agreeing with this sentence makes us “good” and “righteous” in the eyes of the world. Yet, when God agrees with it, He becomes “bad” and “unrighteous.” If we can agree with the death sentence for a murderer, how come it is so wrong when God agrees with a death sentence for a murderer also?
People like to use the fact that He created humans, so why would He agree with killing His own creation? However, the fact is, God is just. He extends the proper consequence to the action. But, He is also gracious. He will condemn one to death, but He doesn’t wish to. Which is why, if you repent and seek to follow God’s commands — if you put your trust in Jesus — He will forgive you and not lead you to eternal death. It is the same with a parent and their child. Parents discipline the child for their actions, however they can also choose to be gracious should the child display understanding that what they did was wrong and agree that they will not do said action again.
Next time we begin to doubt God’s goodness, we must remember that God is our Father, and whatever He deems to be good is good and whatever He deems to be worthy of His wrath is worthy of His wrath. For He seeks justice and His disciplinary actions are part of that justice.
4. We doubt there is any good in the world
The world can be a dark place. It can be overwhelming if all we’re consuming is the news or hanging out with people who we just share the negativity of the world with.
When all we consume is the evil of this world or even the apocalyptic messages of Revelation, we become bitter against the world and doubt whether there is any good left at all…
When this doubt rolls in and we do nothing to stop it, we fail our Lord. For if we truly begin to believe there is no good in the world, then we are claiming that the Lord is not in the world — but He is; there are still many believers on this earth.
As Christians, we must remember that all believers are blessed with the Holy Spirit which is of God, thus, God still remains in this world. He is still a part of the miracles that take place daily.
God is also in every single person we meet, for we are all made in His image and until one dies unsaved, God’s love lives in them hoping to break them free.
Thus, if we succumb to this kind of doubt and if we succumb to the actions of this world — preaching the news and negativity of the world — we fail as Christians. For Jesus tells us to go out unto all the world and preach the good news, not the bad news.
5. We doubt our abilities or our purpose
I don’t know about you, but there are days when I begin to doubt myself immensely. I doubt every little thing about me: whether that be mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. I begin to pull away from the things I love and the things I am passionate about. I begin to pull far away from God.
In doubting our abilities or our purpose in this life, we are inevitably doubting God, because God created us. He created us to have the abilities we have, the gifts we hold, and the purpose we are to fulfill. God wants us to trust in our gifts and abilities so we may use them for His glory. He wants us to be confident in our purpose so we may guide others to His Kingdom.
But Satan wants us to doubt ourselves so that we stop doing what we’re doing for the Kingdom of God. Satan knows that when we doubt our abilities or purpose, we fail to execute our Heavenly Father’s plans for not only His Kingdom, but for us as well. And Satan knows that if he can keep us doubting, he’ll keep us conformed to the negativity of this world.
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