Dealing with Doubt in the Christian Life

Everyone knows the feeling.  You prop up your feet in order to enjoy an hour of your favourite show or get lost in a good book.  As you step down and attempt to stand, that numb tingly feeling shoots up from where your right foot used to be because you swear if you weren’t looking at it that your foot has now disappeared.  Your foot has fallen asleep.

Give it 5 maybe 6 minutes and the blood will re-circulate and you’ll again have sensation and mobility.  It just takes a bit for your body to re-adjust.  This past week we finished our series Encountering Jesus and we looked at the final chapter in Luke’s gospel.  We find the disciples hiding away, afraid and unsure.  It’s here that we see Jesus enter, in some miraculous fashion, this locked room and present himself alive to his disciples.

Luke recounts:

Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.  And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”  And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”  They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  and he took it and ate before them. (24:36b-43)

The disciples’ spirit and belief had “fallen asleep” and when Jesus appeared they had a hard time re-adjusting to the new reality of the resurrection.  It would take a few moments for their faith to re-circulate as doubt continued to crowd out belief.  

One of the best lines in this text is when it says that the disciples disbelieved for joy.  Translation: they wanted it so much to be true but yet it was still so hard to believe.  This is the nature of doubt and no follower of Jesus is immune to the struggle of doubt: doubt about God’s goodness, His provision, His forgiveness, even about God Himself.

So what do we do when doubt seems to crowd out belief? 

As I’ve wrestled with doubt in my own life (yes…even pastors…maybe especially pastors wrestle with seasons of doubt) I've found one resource to be immensely helpful.  In his book Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, Pastor JD Greear talks openly and honestly about the nature of doubt in the life of a believer.

There are times, even now, when I look at my heart and wonder how I could possibly have been “born again.”  Moments in which I care more about what’s coming on TV that night than I do the spread of the gospel in the world.  Moments when God feels distant, almost like a stranger.  My emotions for Him are lukewarm, if not downright cold.  I don’t jump out of bed hungry for His Word, and my mind wanders all over the place when I pray.  Or I fall to the same temptation again.  For the thousandth time.  Or moments I doubt God’s goodness, even His existence.

It’s not how I feel all the time, or even most of the time, but it is how I feel some of the time.  And then the question hits me again: wait a minute… Am I really saved?  How could I be, and still have feelings like this?

What do you do in that moment?  Pray “the sinners prayer” again?  Should I call my old church and have the pastor warm up the baptismal waters?  The answer is relatively simple in that moment:  keep believing the gospel.  Keep your hand on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ.  No matter how you feel at any given moment, how encouraged or discouraged you feel about your spiritual progress, how hot or cold your love for Jesus, what you should be doing is always the same–resting in the gospel.  Rest in His finished work.  That’s all you can do.  It’s all you need to do.  It’s all God has commanded you to do.

On your very best days, you must set all your hopes on God’s grace.  On your worst days, His finished work should be your refuge.  Your posture should always be one of dependence on His finished work and hope in His indwelling Spirit.  Period. [105-106]

Maybe you find yourself in this exact place today…full of fear, uncertainty, or doubt.  You’re not alone.  And you’re not left to your own devices to figure out how to move forward in this season.  Here are a few things that God tells us to do when we find ourselves struggling with doubt…and you will at some point in your journey with Jesus find yourself struggling with doubt.

1. Be honest with God about your doubt

   The Psalms are filled with honest responses to God.  Take for instance Psalm 77 where in total exhaustion the Psalmist writes, “in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints.” [vv.2b-3]

   Spiritual maturity isn’t measured by how well we can put on a stoic face or ignore those nagging questions.  The Psalmists teach us that because God is infinite and wise while also loving and gracious - we can come before Him openly and honestly with our doubt.
   

2. Be honest with others in Christian community about your doubt

   One of the reasons that the Bible exhorts us to not neglect meeting together is because the Bible knows how desperately we need each other in seasons of doubt and uncertainty.  Thus the Hebrew writer says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (10:24).  One of the reasons we gather together on Sunday or in group is to provide spiritual encouragement during those seasons of doubt.  Doubt is made infinitely more difficult in isolation.
   

3. Preach the gospel to yourself

Notice how the Psalmist ends in Psalm 77, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?”  The Psalmist doesn’t let his doubt get the final word. When we preach the gospel to ourselves we are allowing the gospel and not our doubt to get the final word.

So if you find your foot asleep today… tell God.  Then tell a fellow follower of Jesus.  And then preach the gospel to yourself… when you wake up and when you go to bed and everywhere in between.