When
in Doubt
“For
assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast
into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things
he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” Mark
11:23
It just so happened that I
needed this teaching on doubt
today. We have been going through a time
of testing and doubt keeps creeping through me.
My husband is a man of great faith and he tells me, “Don’t worry about it, God didn’t bring us this far to drop it now.” We had our house sold and the people buying
it were approved, but they did something and now the bank unapproved them. Even worse is that we made a down payment on
the house we want to buy. I don’t know
how this will work out, but I do know that in the end, God will work it out for
our good.
“And
we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those
who are the called according to His
purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
I have stood on this scripture many times in the
past and now I lean on it again. Faith
is trusting God for all things. Trusting
God when you are raising children and grandchildren takes strong faith. When you start out on a new adventure,
especially when you are older, takes faith.
I could list thousands of things in a person’s life that would be
difficult, if not impossible to accomplish if it were not for faith in our
heavenly Father.
Either we have faith or we have doubt. Faith and doubt do not work together. When we have needed something, over the
years, we have prayed in faith that it would happen. Then time moved on and when it didn’t happen
we began to doubt God and our faith went down and down until it disappeared. Then we found out later that the thing we
thought we needed so badly, wasn’t the right thing for us, or something better
happened.
In Matthew 21:21 we read a great lesson about
doubt. “So Jesus answered and said to
them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith
and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,
but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it
will be done.” What a lesson! When we say we have faith that
a certain thing will happen, but we also have just a little doubt creep in,
faith jumps out. Then it is easy to blame God for it
.
Let’s be honest about
this situation; it isn’t God’s fault you didn’t get what you wanted, it’s your
own fault that you didn’t have faith or belief.
Stop and think about this for a minute; Luke 11:11, “If a son asks for
bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks
for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?” Of course not; that’s not God’s way. He wants to give you whatever is good for
you, but He doesn’t want you to doubt him.
Doubt is a negative word while ‘faith is positive’.
One of my favorite scriptures is found in Luke
8:49-50, “While
He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, “Your daughter
is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.” but when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, "Do not be afraid; only believe,
and she will be made well.” Only believe!
What simple but powerful words they are.
Only believe and the sick will be made well. Only believe and your need will be met. Only believe and you can move mountains.
These are the words of
Jesus our Savior and they are as true today as when he spoke them. I titled this blog, “When in Doubt” and I end
it with these words, “Only Believe”.
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