A Christian’s approach to life situation part 1

Doubt

 

Not all doubting is bad.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Doubt becomes bad when we doubt God

 

Everyone has trouble with doubt from time to time even great people of the Bible did.

 

Judges 6 Gideon – call to fight the Midianites. 32,000 to 10,000 to 300 against 135,000 Midianites

 

Abraham deceives the Pharaoh because of his doubt in God

 

Genesis 12:11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.  12 "Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.  13 "Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you."

 

Sarah doubted God’s promise of a child – Hagar – and later on laughed

 

Moses doubted God and himself to deliver the children of Israel. Exodus 3 – 4 He gives 5 excuses 1. Who am I 2. What I am supposed to say 3. What if they will not believe me 4. I am not good speaker 5. Please send someone else.

 

Peter doubts by not staying focused on Jesus

 

Matthew 14:25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.  26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.  27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid."  28 ¶ And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."  29 So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"  31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"  32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God."

 

Thomas Doubts because he wants to see with his eyes

 

John 20:24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

 

Notice Jesus response

 

  26 ¶ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!"  27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."  28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"  29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

 

The fact that these people of God had trouble with doubt means that we will have trouble with doubt as well. Now lets take a look at some examples of how bad things take place because of doubt.

 

Eve Doubts and tempts her husband to sin, brings about physical death, pain in child bearing, and man having to work the ground. (Doubting is contagious)

 

Genesis 3:1 ¶ Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"  2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;  3 "but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' "  4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.  5 "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

 

The people of Noah’s day doubted Noah’s preaching (2 Pet. 2:5) that God would destroy them if they did not turn to him. In Gen. 7 we learn that on Noah and his family were saved. Everyone died because they doubted the power of God.

 

The children of Israel doubts God’s ability to conquer their enemy.

 

Numbers 13:31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we."  32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.  33 "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." 14:1 ¶ So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.  2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!  3 "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"  4 ¶ So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt."

 

Paul is a man who doubted that Jesus was the Son of God and so he did everything in his power to destroy Christianity. His doubt caused a lot of Christians to lose their lives and to be beaten before he stopped doubting. That why he tell Timothy,

 

1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,  13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.  

 

So, as you can see that can be great consequences when someone doubts. Of course the greatest consequence of doubt is whet it causes a person not to become a Christian or when it causes a Christians to fall away from God.

 

Since doubt can be dangerous, how should we deal with doubt as Christian?

 

1. Consider Job. Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!"  10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

 

2. Jesus is brought to a man who has son that is possessed and His disciples cannot cast it out.

 

 Mark 9: 21 So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood.  22 "And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."  23 Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."  24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

 

We need to pray to God for help so that we do not doubt and when we pray we must trust the God will answer our prayers because  James 1:5-6 says that if you doubt when you pray your prayer will not be answered.

 

3. Finally, to help us overcome our doubts there is great need for us to study and meditate upon God’s Word because the more we put His word in our heart, the less room their will be for doubt.