Step 3

Dealing with Doubt

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 Step 3: Dealing with Doubt

Hebrews 3:12
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful,
unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

Doubt is something most people have to deal with. As

I looked for answers as to why I have doubt in God, my
mind started racing. I started by looking at the root of what
my relationship with God was, and why He wants to have
a relationship with me so badly. That’s right: God wants a
relationship with me as much as I want one with Him, if
not more.

1 John 4:9
This is how God showed his love among
us: He sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through Him.

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 Ten Steps To A Closer Walk With God

I truly believe there is a distinctive difference between

doubt and disbelief. In my case, I believe in God but I have
moments of doubt. The ability to doubt gives me the oppor-
tunity to exercise my free will to believe or not believe
in God.
The deeper I looked into the issues of doubt, the more I
came to realize that God wants an honest relationship with
me, not a forced one. In the past, I often wondered why God
doesn’t just show Himself to everyone and be done with it.
Think about it. If God were to just part the clouds and say,
“Helloooo, everyone! That’s right, God here ... I’m real!”,
things would be much simpler, right? I don’t think so.
You see, God, in all of His infinite wisdom, understands
the true meaning of a relationship. Sure, He could just
appear to us if He wanted to and prove His existence, but
then the relationship part would go away, at least the kind
He desires. If He were to do this we would lose the free will
that’s required for us to love Him by choice.

Why do we have a choice?

There was once a man, a very smart man, who lived a

very lonely life. All he wanted was a relationship with
someone he could love and in return that person would
love him back.
One day the man decided he was smart enough to create
a robot that would look and act exactly like a real person.
He spent months in the laboratory perfecting every last
detail. The robot’s skin was soft and warm, the anima-
tronics were perfect, and the body could move just like a
real human’s. He even created a pump inside that simulated

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a heartbeat. It could laugh and cry, hug and comfort. Being

as smart as he was, he had created the robot to be a female.
She was perfect in every way.
The day finally came to activate the robot, and the man
was very excited.
A few days after activating his new companion, it was
time for an evening conversation and quality time. The two
talked and laughed and everything was going great. So
great, in fact, that the man looked into his creation’s eyes
and said, “You make me so happy and for that I will always
love you.” His companion then replied, “I will always love
you too.”
In a rush of emotions, the man’s world came crashing
down on him. Although he finally had what he always
wanted, he now knew it was all an illusion. When he heard
his new companion express its love for him, he realized it
was just a programmed response. How could his creation
really love him? Sadly, he began to understand that even
with all his wisdom, he forgot the need for free will. His cre-
ation was just doing what it was told to do. It had no choice.
The love couldn’t be real.
Don’t you think God was smart enough to think about
this type of problem before He created us? Of course He
was. So, what does this have to do with doubt? What did
the man fail to consider when creating his robot? You see,
God was smart enough to give us free will. This gives us the
ability to choose if we want to love Him or simply turn our
backs and walk away. By giving us the ability to choose, He
knows that when we say we love Him, we really do.
If God were to simply appear to us demanding our love,
we would lose our ability to make a choice. By His design,
our relationship is built on faith, and faith requires us to
believe in something even if there isn’t definitive proof of

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its existence. For me, I choose to believe in God, but because

my relationship with Him is based on faith, sometimes I
doubt.

Joshua 24:15
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to
you, then choose for yourselves this day whom
you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers
served beyond the River, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for
me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

You see, in the story of the man and the robot, the one
thing the man didn’t give his robot was a choice, free will.
How can love mean anything if the one who expresses it
only does so because it was told to? Is that love or just a
programmed response?
Because God wants an honest relationship with us, He
had to give us the choice to engage in that relationship or
reject it. This is the only way He knows for sure that our
love for Him is real.
One thing we need to be careful of is what we do with
our doubt. As we all know, Satan is always looking for
the opportunity to come between God and us. Doubt is
one of the best weapons he can use to achieve this goal. If
unchecked, he will use doubt to create disbelief. If you don’t
think he will, think again.

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Doubting God or me?

Doubt is a funny thing. I’ve been married to my wife for

23 years, and my love for her is almost unexplainable. She is
one of the most compassionate and giving people I’ve ever
met. Although rare these days, we still have our occasional
spats, but what couple doesn’t?
I can see her, touch her, and physically hear her when she
tells me she loves me. I can see direct results of her actions
when she takes care of me. I can see the love in her eyes
and hear it in her voice. When she holds me in her arms,
I feel safe and comforted. Yet, there are times I doubt her
love for me. How can this be? Well, I’ve discovered that my
doubt isn’t in her, but in me. It’s not that I feel her love isn’t
real, but sometimes I think I feel unworthy of her love. How
could someone as wonderful as she is actually love someone
like me? It dawned on me that almost every time I starting
doubting God’s existence or love, I was thinking the same
thing about Him.
Consider the story I told in the chapter on trust about
Jen and Angela. Jen was convinced that Angela was disre-
specting their relationship when she didn’t call as expected.
As time went on, she began to doubt the friendship she had
with Angela. Do you think she could have doubted their
friendship because of a lack of self-worth?
Similarly, Satan will use our doubt to destroy our rela-
tionship with God. He will take the doubt or lack of self-
worth and turn us into nonbelievers. He will do everything
he can to increase our doubt, in whatever form it is, and pull
us away from God.

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Turning doubt into faith

The key in all of this, at least for me, was to decide what to
do with my doubt. I began to recognize that a certain mea-
sure of doubt, just like our measure of faith, was actually a
gift from God. My God is so awesome that He will allow
me to reject Him if I want to. Obviously that isn’t my goal,
but I could do it. I also have to believe that I am worthy of
God’s love.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I choose to take my doubt and use it as a tool to increase

my faith. I use my doubt to push myself to look for more
evidence of God’s existence. My doubt makes me ask more
questions. It gives me the desire to learn more about God
and why He created me.
I’ve read some teachings about doubt in which people
advise you to actually put God to the test. There’s an
example in the Bible in which Gideon had doubts of God’s
existence so he decided to put God to the test (Judges 6:39).
He threw a fleece on the ground and asked God to surround
it with dew the next morning but leave the fleece dry. The
next morning, dew was everywhere yet the fleece was dry.
Today, when a Christian challenges God or puts Him to the
test, it’s called “throwing out the fleece.” I’m not so sure
this is the best approach, but it does help some people who
struggle with doubt. I prefer to examine my past to find evi-
dence of God’s existence.

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A good human example of how doubt can affect anyone

is John the Baptist. Jesus said, “...Among those born of women
there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist...” (Mat-
thew 11:11). John spent a lot of time with Jesus. Well, eventu-
ally John found himself in prison because of his disapproval
of King Herod’s adulterous affair with his brother’s wife,
Herodias. King Herod eventually divorced his wife and
married Herodias.
While in prison, John started to have doubts about Jesus,
so he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask if He really is
the Messiah. You have to understand that while John was
in prison he had a lot of time to think, and it’s only natural
that his mind would start to go to places like this. He won-
dered, if Jesus was “the one,” why He would let one of His
disciples sit in jail.
When the disciples reached Jesus, they asked Him if He
was “the one” or should they look for another. Jesus let the
disciples watch Him perform some miraculous healings and
then told them to go back to John and report what they’d
seen. This was enough to stop John’s doubt. I think another
thing that helped John overcome his doubt is the fact that he
actually witnessed Jesus perform miracles firsthand.

Matthew 11:1-5
After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples,
he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns
of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was
doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one
who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear
and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those
who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

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Another famous doubter, perhaps the single most famous

doubter of all times, was Thomas. We all know the story of
how Thomas doubted that it really was Jesus raised from
the dead until he actually touched the nail holes in Jesus’
hands.
There is an expression, “Seeing is believing.” Well, Jesus
understood that our human nature wants us to see some-
thing before we believe it. That’s why He had the disciples
witness miracles and then report back to John—to remind
him of what he had witnessed firsthand in the past. This is
also why he let Thomas touch the nail holes in His hands.
After reading these stories, things started to make sense
to me. The Bible clearly states that these two men, who actu-
ally walked and talked with Jesus, still had doubts. How
could this be? Well, because they were human. Remember,
God wants us to have an honest relationship with Him. He
wants us to choose to love Him. In order for us to make a
choice, the choice has to exist. The robot couldn’t doubt the
man who created it because it wasn’t made that way. There
was no free will and therefore no honest love.

Wagering on faith

In the early 1600s, there was a brilliant mathematician by

the name of Blaise Pascal. When it came to God, he con-
cluded there was no definitive way to prove or disprove
His existence. When considering the option of believing in
God or not, he decided it was safer to believe. His theory
was simple: When the time comes for him to die, if he had
believed in God’s existence, he would be safe. In addition,
if he had believed in God, but when he died God really

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wasn’t there, it wouldn’t matter and nothing would be lost.

This way of thinking is called Pascal’s Wager. It was his
“safe bet.”
I’m not a fan of this way of thinking. I’m confident that
God knows what’s really in our hearts. He didn’t create us
to “play the odds.” That, to me, isn’t a relationship but an
act of self-preservation.
I know that I long to have an intimate relationship with
God, and I now understand that He wants one with me. So,
in the end, I don’t think I’m a bad person for having doubt
from time to time. I just need to make sure I always find my
way back.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, please help me to better understand the

nature of our relationship. Help me to understand
that the doubt I feel from time to time doesn’t come
from a lack of belief in You, and that doubt is actually
part of my faith. When I have my moments of doubt,
please remind me to use them as a way to grow closer
to You, to find ways to increase my faith. Let me be
reminded of John and Thomas and their relationships
with You. Let me not be ashamed by my occasional
doubt, but let me grow stronger each time I overcome
it. Comfort me with the knowledge that even in my
times of doubt you are there to protect me because
that’s just how wonderful You are.
Thank You for the gift of free will and for allowing
me the opportunity to worship You by choice.
Thank You for wanting an individual and unique

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relationship with me that’s built on honest love.

Please help me to appreciate this gift more and more
each day.

Action:

The next time you feel yourself doubting the

existence of God or your relationship with Him,
take a deep breath and try to slow things down.
Don’t beat yourself up, because we all have
our moments of doubt. The key is what you do
with them. When doubt hits, dig deeper into
the Word. Stay in communication with God and
explain your doubt and how you feel.
Think about the moment you started to feel
the doubt and ask yourself what may have
caused it. Did something bad just happen? Did
you ask God for something and feel like He
didn’t answer your prayer? Are you around a lot
of nonbelievers who might be influencing your
thoughts?
Seek out another believer and be open about
your doubt. Tell them what’s going on in your
life and ask them how they’ve dealt with doubt in
the past. Don’t hide from doubt; face it head on.

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