Forget Thomas. I’m the one who doubts!

Let me just start off by saying that this post took me a long time to write.  I kept finding example after example after example of people who doubted God’s plan for their life, doubted Jesus, doubted His work, that it was hard to pick an example.  After deciding on the one that I would use to represent what I wanted to say in this post and still having all the rest on my mind, I have to say that I can’t think of a more useful tool to derail a Christian from what God wants him/her to do than doubt.

In the Old Testament there were many that doubted, all to varying degrees of disaster.  Then you have all of the disciples, who Jesus called out personally for doubting (not just Thomas).  You have many that met Jesus, who did not believe.  I talked about being in good company in my last post on straying off of God’s plan, well, if you have ever doubted, you are pretty much in the company of everyone else.

But why is this such an issue?

Think about it: doubt is the feeling of uncertainty in something.  It is not the complete disbelief or belief of something, but a wavering, unknowing thought that something might not be right.  That is why it is the greatest arsenal of all in spiritual warfare.  Get a Christian to doubt in anything that they are doing, in God, or in their faith and they are essentially useless.  Satan and his helpers don’t even need to disprove any of it, just the fact that there is in the back of the mind that doubt and it will derail anything a Christian is trying to do.  And what is their goal?  To derail God’s plan.  So when we are talking about following God’s plan, you will assuredly come up against doubt.

For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  (James 1:6b)

Peter—When the miraculous sinks

    Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
    And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”(Matthew 14:22-33)

So there the disciples are in the boat, where Jesus told them to be, and they’re not having an easy time of it because they were being “beaten by the waves.”  It’s night and they see a person walking along the water.  Yeah, I’d think it was a ghost too.  So they move past this; Peter believes that it is Jesus, because he gets out of the boat.

Peter does fine.  He’s walking out to Jesus, and he meets him there.  He followed God with no problem, even though he was doing the impossible.  He’s literally standing with Jesus, and the wind comes back.  The wind.  Something that in and of itself would not have affected him.  He was sure of what Jesus wanted him to do, which was why he was standing with Him.  But then he’s reminded of his humanness (we can not walk on water by ourselves!), by the wind, and the doubt comes, and down he goes into the water.

After what Peter did by walking on the water and standing with Jesus, you wouldn’t think that he would be troubled by some wind.  He followed Jesus at His command, no problem at all.  And then he was completely derailed, sinking, unable to do what he was supposed to do.  All because of the thought of “I shouldn’t be able to do this, what if…” popped into his head.

When we are trying to follow God’s plan for our life, and all seems to be chaos (in the storm of life), it’s not uncommon to wonder whether or not we are really doing what God would want us to do.  When we have prayed about it and still feel God is calling us on this particular mission, we can still come up against doubts.  We might have followed him without questioning at first, saw miraculous things happen, but it is human nature to doubt when things start going wrong.  Do not be disheartened in this.

Next week, we will talk about our response to our doubt in God’s plan for our life.

through His grace alone!

Sarah