Dealing With Doubt

Dealing with Doubt

Read: John 20:24-29

“Stop doubting and believe.”

John 20:27

“Turn from your doubts with horror, as you would from blasphemy; for they are blasphemy.”

—Hannah Whitall Smith

IN WORD Every genuine Christian has struggled with doubts. At first, they are doubts about the big questions— does God really exist, is there life after death, etc. As we progress in the life of faith, we settle these major questions, but we continue to struggle with the more subtle ones. When God says He is my Refuge, does He really mean it? When I pray, has He really heard me? When He promises me my daily bread, can I really depend on it? A world of unfulfilled need and despair nags us into thinking God is not always reliable, or that He is too obscure for His reliability to mean anything to us practically. When we see people go hungry or suffer harm, can we realistically expect God’s promises to be true for us? Doubts—very real ones, often based on others’ experiences or even our own—creep in and try to convince us that God isn’t all He says He is. They wage war against our faith. Sometimes they seem to win.

Jesus’ remedy is not to argue them away. He does not tell Thomas to reason with his doubts. He just tells Thomas to stop doubting. Thomas already has enough evidence— he has now seen the Resurrection, if the whole of Scripture had not been enough already—and must simply stop doubting. The questions are not legitimate in the face of a God with a proven track record.

IN DEED We will find ourselves in one of two cycles: a downward cycle, in which doubt undermines faith, which undermines experience, which in turn further undermines faith; or an upward cycle, in which faith births the experience of God’s intervention, which in turn supports greater faith. Elsewhere, Jesus has said it will be to us according to our faith—God will respond to our trust. The converse is also true; God will not always respond to our doubt. He will not constantly prove Himself to a closed and doubting mind. The evidence is already there. Thomas saw it. We must believe it. The doubts must simply be forsaken and faith embraced.