Doubt and Trust

THIS WEEK has been great. I'm reminded of how much I have to be thankful for. I got free milkshakes with my family and played card games, and I finally won a scholarship like I've been praying I would. The sky is sunny and rainy, and life is full and happy like a new bottle of chocolate syrup.

But I know that things aren't always happy. The world is a gruesome place. Just this week I heard on the news about explosions and mass shootings in Norway that make me very disappointed in the world. Norway, of all places! Where are we safe? I was reading in Job the other day and found a verse that really describes the way the world looks right now.

Job 9:24 "The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He [God] covers the faces of its judges - if it is not He, who then is it?"

From the perspective of a distressed earth-dweller, this opinion initially seems valid. Job is asking the reason for all the wickedness and pain he observes, and he concludes that because God is the Lord, He must be responsible. In other words, if this isn't God's fault, whose could it be?

Bombings, shootings, burglaries, and other evil acts naturally make people reevaluate their faith in God because we start to wonder what kind of God lets these things happen. How do we explain evil in a world created by a good God? I think that's where a lot of doubt, agnosticism and atheism spring from. I know a few people in that position, and you probably do as well.

Let me tell you something about doubt, my friend. It begins as a question. Sometimes the answer comes and your doubt passes like a little grey cloud in the sky. But sometimes it destroys you, leaving you with no foundation. How does this happen?

The opposite of doubt is not certainty, but trust. Doubt asks "What if I'm wrong about everything?" and "What if this isn't really true?" Doubt aims for your trust in God, who is the strong foundation you build your life on. But God is trustworthy, and where we have confusion, He has understanding.

He has helped me to understand that He hates the bitterness in this world even more than we do. People are the problem. Sin is the problem. He could either get rid of us, or get rid of sin. So He is actually making a better world by fixing us, which He does through the sacrifice of His Son - the trading of our unrighteousness for His righteousness.

Doubt comes in all forms and in all different circumstances. It could come in a science class, where a book tells you that you're an inconsequential and accidental byproduct of natural processes. Remember that God created natural processes, and you are the work of His hands! Remember the complexity of your parts and that your are fearfully and wonderfully made. Even the eyes you use to read the book could never have been a biological accident.

It could come when disaster and loss strike you, and you wonder if you are truly alone. Cry to God and feel His comforting hand on your shoulder. Of course He hears you over the sound of the whole universe. Isn't His word, that He loves you, greater than the word of anyone else? It is comfoting to know you will never lose Him, the one who loves you most.

Maybe doubt comes when you just don't want to believe what you're seeing. You could actually choose to doubt, for the sake of avoiding conviction. But when people choose independence from God, they choose bondage - freedom from freedom. They have to rely on their own hands, which cannot reach anything big enough to fill the space inside that was created for God to fill. He's right behind you, knocking hard on your door.

I read a story this week that I've read before plenty of times. Never before had God used it to tell me quite what He told me this time. It's in John 9, the one about the man who had been born blind. Jesus spat in the dirt, made clay, and rubbed it on the man's eyes, and for the first time in his life, he could see. How can we explain that? Everybody who saw him doubted either the man's identity or Jesus' holiness. They thought it must be some sort of trick, although it was obvious what had happened. They didn't want to believe because it would mean that Jesus is who He says He is, and that would mean their blatent wrongness would be exposed. Isn't that still how things go?

When they rained questions on the fellow, he gave an answer that I really love.
John 9:25, "He answered, 'Whether this Man is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that thought I was blind, now I see.'"

As a Christian, this encourages me. It means that even when we don't understand what's going on, and doubts fall down and pepper our faith, the fact of salvation is ultimately undeniable. Even when there's a question we can't quite answer, or a matter that troubles us, we can look at our God and see the way He is working, never sitting still. We can even look at ourselves and how He has transformed us and say, Although I know nothing else, "one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."

From where I stand, He is undeniable. We can't understand everything, and we shouldn't try to. But the value of faith is to keep us trusting Him because He is trustworthy, even when doubts arise and questions come up, even when we see how little we know. Faith is not to disregard all doubt, but to respond to it by choosing God's faithfulness. At this point, God has simply done too much for us to have good reason to doubt Him. Amazingly, He responds by just doing even more. Have a little faith, and don't give up on a God who would never give up on you.

Leave a comment or a question, and have a miraculous week!