“Don’t dig up in doubt what you planted in faith,” she urged, with hard-won confidence.
Someone else once said “Your faith can move mountains, and your doubt can create them”.
While confidence and faith are great motivators, doubt can be a paralysing force.
It’s also been said that “doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will”.
It’s not that people who possess impressive faith or achieve great success have never dealt with seasons of doubt. They just never let doubt have the final say.
It’s not abnormal to, at times, question your faith or ponder why God isn’t working in the world in the manner or timeframe you expect.
Mel Robbins, author and speaker, states: “Doubting yourself is normal. Letting it stop you is a choice.”
How you respond to doubt is what matters, more than doubt itself.
If you fixate on doubt, it will progressively overshadow your belief and undermine your confidence.
When you respond to doubt with the truth of what God says, doubt is neutralised.
“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (Col 2:7).
“You are loved with an everlasting love, that's what the Bible says, and underneath are the everlasting arms”.
This typical Elisabeth Elliot’s opening on the radio program ‘Gateway to Joy’, although many years later, attests to her enduring confidence.
Likewise, the apostle Paul endured much and demonstrated no less confidence: “I’m absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love.” (Rom 8:38-39).
I pray that doubts you’re facing today will be defeated with similar confidence.
~ Contributed by Pastor Lynette Kay of Ignite Life Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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