Hey everyone, welcome to today's devotional. Today, I want to talk to you about something that we all will struggle with at one point in our life and that's called doubt. Many of us are going to reach a point in our lives where we're going to be forced to question everything that we believe. Some already struggle without.
You know why? Because our belief is tested every single day. Every time you make a decision about how you're going to respond to someone who is rude to you, how you're going to respond to being laid off from work, how you're going to respond to an empty bank account, your beliefs are placed front and center. When your card breaks down on the same day that your checking account gets over drawn, you face the choice about how you're going to respond to it, but also a choice of what is the basis for your response.
When you're reading, for example, from a news app and everything you read about is COVID-19 businesses struggling and closing people, sick and dying, staying at home orders for an extra month, entire cities shut down. You're forced to confront your own beliefs about human nature, about life and about God. Listen, me personally, the more I try to work through my faith and understand God, the more I'm sure that doubts are necessary for me to grow as a believer. If we want a stronger faith, then we must work through our doubts instead of ignoring that they exist or pushing them aside.
From what we see in the Bible, I'm convinced that God honors those people who sincerely seek him and look for truth. Let me give you an example from Mark 9, verse 21 through 24, about a man talking to Jesus about his sick child. Listen to what it says, it has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him, but if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. Verse 23, and Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible to him who believes.
Verse 24, immediately the voice father cried out and said, I do believe, help my unbelief. This voice father wanted to believe so badly that Jesus could heal his son that he asked God to help him overcome his unbelief. Maybe you can relate to that. You want to believe, but you feel like many things in life have gotten in the way.
All of us are going to doubt at one point or another in our life. Maybe that's one of the ways for our faith to grow stronger. Maybe you want to struggle with the belief that God exists, but maybe you'll struggle with the belief that he cares for you. Maybe you'll struggle with the belief that he loves you and that he has a plan for your life.
Sometimes what happens is that we question God, which I think is okay, but we are willing to listen for God's response. In the Bible, there's a good example of a man named Gideon. An angel shows up and appears to him when he begins talking to him and encouraging him, telling him that God is with him. But I want you to check out Gideon's response in Judges chapter 6 verse 12 and 13.
The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty hero, the Lord is with you. Verse 13, sir, Gideon reply, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say the Lord brought us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.
The Midianites were their enemies. He had some great questions about his fate, and you may be asking yourself some of those questions right now If God is with me, then why is all this happening to me? If God is with us, then why is this happening in the world? Where is the miracles and the power of God that I hear about so much?
I don't see it, and I haven't experienced it. Those may be your doubts and your questions right now. Listen, God didn't answer Gideon's question, but the angel did one thing he continued to encourage him saying that God would continue to be with him. I want you to think about this.
If you understood everything completely and fully, you wouldn't need faith, would you? But the Bible reminds us one thing about God and about faith in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6. It says the following, and it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
But why? Because faith and trust come out of a relationship of love. Faith doesn't come from a business relationship or a transaction. Faith doesn't even come from religion or some situation that we're forced into where we have no choice.
Listen, faith comes from meaningful relationships. Usually the doubts that arise in our minds about God come from us being far from God and being distant from God. Not being connected to God through the reading of scripture and the prayer. If we're honest, true trust and faith is only developed through relationship.
And the good news is that God invites us into a personal relationship with him where our faith is built up. Look at the invitation God makes in Hebrews 4 16. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God where we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us where we need it the most. So how do we confront our doubts?
By doing a few things. First, by willing, being willing to accept God's invitation to enter into his presence in a real relationship. Being able to ask on his questions. Being able to not push aside our doubts.
And importantly, being willing to listen for God's answer after we ask those difficult questions. Thanks for joining me today. You've been listening to The Daily Five. Apply the work and make today count.