Doubt

Doubt is probably one of the biggest struggles people face in a walk with Christ.  Correspondingly, doubt is probably one of the least addressed issues.  I think this is because when we are among other Christians (church, bible studies, ect) we look at the situation and say something like this: "Okay I'm in a place where everyone else believes in God... I believe in God too but right now I'm struggling with (insert your doubt here)... If I bring up this doubt, how is this going to come off to others who believe... I'm a little scared to even put my doubt into dialogue... Verbalizing my doubt might make God think I don't believe (this statement is a little contradictory but I'll be the first to admit that it has crossed my mind)."  The fact is EVERYONE has doubts.  God designed doubt into the human experience.  Pay attention here, this is important.  Just like any other hindrance in our faith, the devil wants you to keep your doubt to yourself.  I'll let you in on a doubt I struggle with.  In Sociology there is this concept called The Self Fulling Prophesy.  It states, that situations we define as real, become real in there consequences.  In simpler terms, things we believe to be true, ultimately become true due to our belief in them.  Here's a real world example of how this theory works.  There's a weak and self conscious male who enters the military.  The military takes this individual through physical training and mentally breaks the individual down.  The individual is then built up through physical gains and the implementation of a belief system (brain washing).  Before you know it, you have an elite military resource who believes he can do anything.  Now take that same concept and apply it to ones faith.  This is where my doubt comes in.  I have this doubt that maybe everything I believe in, is simply a product of the beliefs I have been exposed to throughout my life.  That my belief in God is a result of slowly convincing myself of God.  I think there's probably more doubt in the Christian faith today than ever before.  With modern science and technology we have become a society that depends on our senses and our understanding to determine what is real and what is not.  I just had a post concerning Proverbs 3:5 which urges us not to lean on our own understanding.  God tells us this because it's our own understanding that produces doubt.

Here's the take away.  Realize that doubt is part of following Christ.  Realize that EVERYONE else has doubts too.  When your in moments or seasons of doubt, don't keep it pinned up inside (that's what the devil wants).  Most importantly, look at the big picture and re-think your interpretation of doubt.  So you have this ONE doubt... somehow we as humans take the one shred of something bad and it overrides everything else.  Do not forget the undeniable facts in life!  It is undeniable that you exist.  Which means you either came from nothing or you were created.  It is undeniable that Jesus the person lived.  It is undeniable that he was put to death for saying he was the son of God.  It is undeniable that the 12 disciples who followed Jesus must have seen the risen Christ... otherwise they would not have faced persecution and death so fearlessly (11 of 12 disciples were executed after refusing to deny their savior).  It is undeniable that the apostle Pual was formally Saul who persecuted and executed Christians and through an encounter with the risen Christ was immediately transformed and became one of the most important catalysts of the Christian faith.  It is undeniable that today nearly 1/3 of the worlds population believes that a man named Jesus was the son of God and died a sinners death to save the world!  Do not forget the multitudes of undeniable facts in life!

Grace and Peace
JoMo