{"id":5176,"date":"2019-10-27T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5176"},"modified":"2019-08-07T21:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T02:48:00","slug":"choose-to-face-your-doubts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=5176","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Face Your Doubts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Choices change our lives\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

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Can one be a Christian and have doubts? I think so.<\/p>\n

Exactly what are doubts? One definition is \u201cfeelings of uncertainty.\u201d Most Christians have feelings of uncertainty from time to time \u2013 especially when facing trials. God doesn\u2019t always give us what we want when we want it, so we might doubt His love for us. Doubt itself is not a sin. Actually, it\u2019s better to face our doubts than pretend they don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what David did. He talked his doubts over with God, and he was fairly bold in letting God know how he felt. Just read the Psalms. \u201cHow long will you forget me, O Lord? How long will you hide yourself from me?\u201d (Psalm 13:1-3) \u201cWhy do you stand so far off, O Lord?\u201d (Psalm10:1) \u201cWhy have you forsaken me?\u201d (Psalm 22:1) This was David\u2019s way of asking God to help his doubt. And God always did. We can tell because of the conclusions David reached. All those Psalms end with David acknowledging God\u2019s greatness and trusting His mercy, judgment, salvation, goodness, and love.<\/p>\n

Just because we doubt doesn\u2019t mean God doesn\u2019t love us. God loved David. He even said that David was \u201ca man after mine own heart\u201d (Acts 13:22).<\/p>\n

What about John the Baptist? He had testified that Jesus was the Son of God (John 1:29, 34). Yet when Herod threw Him in prison, he must have had a little element of doubt. He sent messengers to Jesus to ask, \u201cAre you really the one who was to come, or do we need to look for someone else?\u201d (Matthew 11:2-3) Jesus was not upset by the question. He didn\u2019t chastise John. He told the messengers to go and reassure John (Matthew 11:4-6). Then Jesus told the crowds there had never been another man born of women greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11). That\u2019s pretty high praise for one who had a little doubt.<\/p>\n

Peter had not expected Jesus to be arrested, so he had some doubts. Why else would he have denied Christ three times (Luke 22:54-61)? And after Christ\u2019s crucifixion, all the disciples were disheartened and had a few doubts. They didn\u2019t fully understand God\u2019s plan yet. When the women reported Christ\u2019s resurrection, the men thought they were \u201ctelling idle tales\u201d (Luke 24:11). Peter ran to the tomb to see for himself.<\/p>\n

Then a little later Christ appeared to the disciples. However, Thomas wasn\u2019t with them, so he had some doubts. He said he wouldn\u2019t believe it until he personally saw the print of the nails in Christ\u2019s hands and touched His scars (John 20:24-29). Eight days later Jesus came to Thomas and let him touch His scars. This was not a rebuke. It was Jesus helping Thomas on his spiritual journey. Thomas humbly responded with, \u201cMy Lord and my God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus didn\u2019t say, \u201cYou bad, bad disciples! How dare you doubt?\u201d He was patient and loving towards them. And He is patient and loving towards us.<\/p>\n

When Christ appeared to the eleven disciples before His final commission, we are told they worshipped Him, but some doubted (Matthew 18:16-17). Christ had already appeared to them a couple of times, so why doubt? Aren\u2019t we kind of like that? God does so many wonderful things for us but sometimes we still kind of doubt Him when He doesn\u2019t respond the way we think He should.<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s what I find interesting. This scripture indicates they all worshipped Him even though a few doubted. The Greek word here for doubt is \u201cdistazo\u201d which means to hesitate and think two different ways at the same time. Maybe the doubters thought, \u201cWOW! There He is. But wait. He was crucified and died. How can this be? But it is!\u201d However, no matter what they thought, they worshipped Him.<\/p>\n

Some say doubt is the opposite of faith. I\u2019m not so sure. After all, courageous people have fear; they feel fear but do what is right anyway. I think faithful people can also have doubts. However, their actions are based on their faith or what they believe, not their doubts. Our Christian faith must be deeper than our doubts. All those disciples worshipped Jesus in spite of any wavering some may have felt.<\/p>\n

Consider this<\/strong>\u2026 Our doubts do not alter the existence of God. God isn\u2019t like Tinkerbell who relies on us to chant, \u201cI do believe, I do believe, I do believe\u201d for Him to spring to life. God exists whether we believe it or not. Jesus loves us whether we believe it or not.<\/p>\n

One final thought\u2026 <\/strong>Doubts arise from feelings of uncertainty or things we can\u2019t be sure of. Well, we can be sure of God. If we keep our eyes focused on God, we won\u2019t have a lot of time left to doubt. Remember the example of Peter walking on the water. He started to falter when he took his eyes off Jesus (Matthew 14:29-31).<\/p>\n

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Choices change our lives\u2026 By Barbara Dahlgren Can one be a Christian and have doubts? I think so. Exactly what are doubts? One definition is \u201cfeelings of uncertainty.\u201d Most Christians have feelings of uncertainty from time to time \u2013 especially … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}