God has walled me in so I cannot escape. He has weighed me down, even when I call out for help He shuts out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:7
Have you ever been confronted with doubt? Doubting that God hears you, that God cares, that this situation will ever end? If you have ever lost a loved one to death or divorce, or lost a job, or been crippled by disease, then you know about doubt. How can God let these things happen? If you are a Christian, you can pile it on even more by thinking “I shouldn’t feel this way”. We – who are so proud of our faith – put on a smiling face and bury the doubt deep within, acting as if nothing is wrong. We don’t want to tarnish our halo by admitting our weaknesses.
A biblical example of one who had every right to doubt what was happening in his life was Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet. He asked God some tough questions. At one point, he even wondered if God heard his prayers at all. Measuring success by today’s standards of wealth and influence, Jeremiah was a miserable failure. For 40 years he was God’s messenger to the people of Judah. He urged them to turn back to God, but nobody listened to him. On the contrary, they did everything in their power to silence him. He was thrown into prison, thrown into a well, and finally taken to Egypt against his will. His family and friends rejected him, and the priests and teachers of the day thought he was a nut. Throughout his life, Jeremiah stood alone announcing God’s message of a new covenant and weeping over the fate of his beloved Israel.
Did he doubt? Most certainly! But Jeremiah also had great faith because in the midst of the trials, he gave us one of the most comforting verses in the Bible. From this verse came one of our great hymns of faith, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
How could Jeremiah have great faith and great doubt all at the same time? Faith and doubt are not opposites. You can experience both at the same time. Christian growth is a process, and you will have days of faith and days of doubt. You don’t just wake up one morning and find yourself faithful with no more doubts. It doesn’t work that way. God puts us in situations to grow our faith, and part of that growing process is doubt.
Where is your focus today? Is it on the problem at hand? Are you drowning in doubt that God will not help? How do you fix your eyes on what is unseen? Get in God’s word! God’s word will realign your focus heavenward. If you are new to the Bible, start with a Psalm. The Psalms are full of praise and adoration for God in the midst of earthly struggles. If you have studied the Bible for years, go back and read about Jeremiah or Job. These men struggled greatly on this earth and praised God in the midst of their trials. Fix your eyes on the faithfulness of God and grow through your doubts to a greater trust in God.
