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How to Deal with Doubt: Difference between revisions
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=The inevitability of doubt= | |||
Doubt never goes away. | |||
Abraham was a man who was deep into a life of faith. He has left everything … his country, his culture, his family … in trust on the promise of God. He is also the man who half the human race, essentially three world religions, looks to as a paragon of faith, who has just had, first of all, a word of the Lord, a clear, audible revelation, but he was also filled with with doubt. | |||
:''Abram said, “O Lord 1GOD, what will You give me, since I 2am childless, and the 3heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”<ref>New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ge 15:2.</ref> | |||
:''Then Abraham afell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”<ref>New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ge 17:17.</ref> | |||
So how do you think you’re going to do? | |||
Probably, you’re never going to get past it. That means there will always be to some level of doubt in anyone’s life. There has to be. Doubt, in a sense, is a problem that never goes away. It is an inevitable thing, but look at this incredible balance the Bible has here and everywhere. What an incredibly nuanced, balanced view of doubt. | |||
In spite of these wonderful revelations twice Abram says, “But how do I know? How can I really trust? How can I know? I’m filled with doubts.” | |||
Does God say, “How dare you question me?” Never, and yet does God say, “Well, that’s the way it is. We all live with doubt and we can’t help it”? No. On the one hand, God does not condemn. On the other hand, he challenges it. He keeps coming after him. There is a remarkable balance. | |||
Thomas doubted but Jesus did not condemn him. When you express doubt and say, “My faith is weak,” instead of God saying, “How dare you?” God says, “Here, I will help you to have faith and not doubt.” He says, “Doubters are welcome because honest admission of weakness and difficulty and struggle is the way you become Abrahams.”<ref>Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).</ref> | |||
=Is all doubt bad?= | =Is all doubt bad?= | ||