Questions and Doubts 2: What To Do With Your Doubts
Short and simple, we all have our doubts. None of us are immune from doubts. We, as finite beings who do not know everything, will not always have the answers for the questions of our faith. The most clear example of this is seen in Matthew 28:16-17
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. – Matthew 28:16-17
These are the people who had seen Jesus crucified. They watched as the nails were driven into his hands and feet and as he breathed his last breath. Yet, here before them stood this man they had watched die now standing before them. “… but some doubted.” They still had a doubt, even though they had experience and see miracle after miracle and had shared a meal with the resurrected Christ. Yet they doubted. These disciples who had seen and experienced things that I have not, and they still doubted.
None of us are immune to have doubts about our faith. We all will have times where we doubt the things that we have known to be true. So what do we do when we have doubts about our faith?
Don’t Give Up Your Worship
In Matthew 28, we see that the discipleship worshipped him. I do not think that their doubts developed during the process of their worship. Most likely, they came to worship Jesus with the doubts in their mind, not sure of whether or not what they were experiencing was real. Yet they came to worship, not because their doubts were cleared up, but despite the fact that their doubts were not cleared up.
Out doubts should not override our worship. Our doubts don’t change the magnificence of our God or our past experiences. We worship him because of who he is and what he has done in our lives, not because we have figured out the details of an eternal God. Don’t give up worshipping God. Cry out to God your lack of understanding and fully engage the Holy Spirit and offer yourself fully to God.
Bring Your Doubts to God
I fully understand though, that even when we worship, we may still have doubts and they have not been satisfied. Completely okay.
Bring your doubts to God.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. – Hebrews 4:16
We approach the throne of God with confidence, not in our own ability, because we see that we still clearly need grace and go through times of need. We approach the throne of confidence with our doubts knowing that our God is loving and wants to reveal himself and grow in our relationship with Him.
It is okay to have doubts and to have questions. Take those and continue to press deeper into the faith you have been given. Have doubts but present them to a God who will never forsake you or turn your back on you. God wants to walk you through those doubts. Even in your doubts, seek God for the answers.
