Dealing with Doubt Podcast Episodes

Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Certainty is the opposite of faith. Once something moves from the possible to the certain, it no longer requires faith to believe. So rather than doubt being the opposite of faith, it seems like doubt and faith walk together. 

Welcome to Breaking Bread, everyone. The podcast brought to you by Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services. I’m very enthused about today’s topic. The topic is going to be doubt in a believer’s life. I’m really happy to have with me John Reinhardt, by the way of phone, and Brian Sutter right here in the office. 

Both of these brothers have dealt with the topic of doubt. John has spoken on it, and I was able to hear him speak to this topic and was so blessed by it that I think that our general audience here at Breaking Bread would really be blessed by a consideration of doubt in a believer’s life. Most of our listeners know Brian, but John, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? 

Sure. Like you mentioned, I’m with the Bluffton Country Church Congregation. Served as a minister there for 34 years. I just retired a month ago from the pulpit ministry. I also worked in the school systems for 40 years. I was a math teacher for 15 years and then I was a school counselor for 25 years and recently retired from there as well. 

Very good, John. Thanks. And we’re delighted that you have phoned in today and are willing to draw from that experience on today’s topic, which is doubt. The topic of doubt might seem a bit odd to a believing Christian audience, primarily. So, let’s start right there with the topic of doubt. How relevant of a topic is this? 

Well, I would say it’s very relevant. It’s not a new concept. It’s been around since the time of Abraham, at least. Abraham questioned what God was doing, questioned God’s statements and promises, even laughed at them at one point. David writes frequently, in the Psalms about questions he has about God, God’s work, and even God’s presence. Habakkuk writes questioning God’s law. He says, your law seems to be paralyzed. It’s not working. So, doubt is not a new concept. Questioning and searching, are not new concepts. And doubt is a very powerful concept, a pervasive concept. As much as we don’t want to think about having doubts, research has shown that two thirds of Christians in our culture and Western culture go through seasons of doubt. 

And at any one point in time, 25 percent of Christians are going through experiences of doubt or questioning of some sort. There’s an element of a little bit of fright, I think, in Christian circles to maybe even acknowledge doubt. Is that true? I think so. I think it does feel fearful partly because we frame it as being against faith. 

And so just to acknowledge doubt or to acknowledge questions feels really scary because it’s like, to be Christian means that I believe, and I’ve got this unshakable faith. And when we frame it that way, it puts doubt on this island that says we can’t go there. You know, I might scare somebody else, or it shows weak faith and those sorts of things. 

And it frames it as a really scary thing. And I think it’s an important concept that you just mentioned, Brian, to rephrase the concept of what doubt is. If doubt truly is the state of uncertainty rather than an opposition of faith, then there are many examples of doubt probably in all people’s lives and certainly in the lives of some real biblical. 

Let’s start to understand what we mean by doubt. I think not all doubt looks the same. Oh, sure. John, how do you understand doubt on a continuum between it looks like this and it can also look like that? That’s a good question because doubt can go to different depths and it can also follow different trajectories, I think. 

One level of doubt is, like Abraham, to question what God is doing in my life. And it’s not uncommon for us to experience those types of seasons of doubt. When a young person is exploring marriage, or when someone is exploring a job change, and things aren’t working out as one might have expected, then we begin to question, I wonder what God is doing in my life? 

And that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an absence of faith, but there’s the presence of uncertainty, which is definitely an aspect of doubt. And in that, it makes sense that we would doubt, that we would struggle with not understanding where God is, what is his purpose here, what does this mean, and that’s a natural part of living a life of faith. As things unfold, and they don’t unfold the way we expect, God’s designed our minds to question that along with fears and unsettledness. And that’s part of God’s design, I believe. 

And you see that through the Scriptures and not necessarily as something we have to be fearful of. It’s something to work through to get to the other side of, sometimes we think it’s the opposite of faith. But actually, doubt is not the opposite of faith. Certainty is the opposite of faith. Once something moves from the possible to the certain, it no longer requires faith to believe. 

Once we are so certain of something that we have no questions about it, then do we even really need faith? So, rather than doubt being the opposite of faith, it seems like doubt and faith walk together. And that’s a really redemptive view of doubt. I think this is another area, too, where we can look horizontal, and we can say, well, see, that’s what faith looks like, and that’s not where I’m at. And so, I must be in this doubt category, right? So, there’s this comparison. Exactly. And in that, just that God’s created us as different people, and that we’re going to process things differently, and that when we look at each other and start having those comparisons and we’re comparing how we’re experiencing something internally versus how somebody else is walking through it publicly. And it can really put us on this perspective that says, I’m a bad Christian, there’s something wrong with me, I have more doubt than everybody else. And most times that’s not the case at all. And the last thing I’m going to do is admit that I’ve got a doubt issue. 

That’s right. I have to keep this quiet. Yeah. Or else. John, I’d like you to speak to this issue also that we would like to sweep under the rug a bit in the church. Would you agree with that comment? Like I mentioned, I was on the pulpit for 34 years and I could maybe count on one hand how many sermons I heard on doubt. 

It’s the type of subject that we want to push to the side and say, good Christians don’t have doubts. Good Christians don’t question God. Good Christians just accept without question. And yet, I think when we consider Jesus himself on the cross, and when he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 

If Jesus himself would question what is happening here, it certainly gives us liberty and permission to have some questions ourselves. And we don’t acknowledge that. We don’t speak about it. We don’t talk about it very often. It seems like too painful of a subject or too frightening of a subject to discuss. 

And it can lead to some frightening emotions. We can feel lonely. You know, I’m the only one that has these questions. Everyone else seems to be doing just fine. Like you said, Brian, the public person and the private person can be two different individuals and so we can have these private doubts and everyone else may be looking publicly like they’re all singing Blessed Assurance and I’m asking what is going on here. 

And sometimes that loneliness can lead to feelings of guilt. There must be something wrong with me. I’m a bad person for feeling this way, which can really lead into insecurities. There must be something wrong with me. And that can even lead us deeper into fear. How is God going to judge me? How is God going to punish me? Am I becoming an atheist because I have these questions? Am I a Christian at all? Yeah, exactly right. And Satan can play with those, take us to deeper and darker levels, but exposing it from the outset and being honest with ourselves, with God, and with a good, trustworthy confidant can be very helpful. 

So, we’ve really painted this element that I can doubt in my situation and circumstances.  Did I hear God? I don’t have a connection with God. And then all the way to the doubting of perhaps God’s existence. Am I an atheist? Maybe I’m not a believer. Right? So, we do have a spectrum, and as John said, different depths. I’d love your insights on that, Brian. Well, I think it’s one of those things that if we see doubt as part of the believer’s life and we can accept that, then that’s going to help us as we walk through some of those initial questions and fears and unsettledness, whereas if we can’t accept doubt as part of believing, then it’s really scary. 

And that puts us in this panic, and Satan’s able to use that and take us down this road of, oh no, does that mean that I am going down this road of walking away from Christ when it doesn’t? But the reality is, too, there certainly are those who have doubts to the place where they would say, I don’t accept Christ as a Savior. 

But that’s a very different position than a believer who’s saying, I question, or I’m not sure about, or I wonder. And just being able to put those in very different buckets, I think is important. I love that man who came to Jesus and says I do believe but help thou my unbelief. Exactly. He really understood. 

I think what you’re saying there is that his faith was very present with doubt which I think is a special thing. I really like that, and I love when you look at the Scriptures and you see Christ interacting with people or doubters. It’s such a beautiful picture of him coming alongside loving and mercifully moving them towards being able to see him as God and as the Savior.  

It’s not this harsh, what’s wrong with you? How could you even question me? That’s not his approach, but somehow that’s the picture we sometimes take. Yeah, which is different than the interaction he had with the Pharisees who were certain they were right, and they were not. Does that make sense? That’s exactly right. They were certain. And so, they were without faith. And he came down very hard on them. But to his own disciples who were working this all out, he said, don’t you know, haven’t you seen me? He was much softer. That’s special. 

The disciples who even Jesus in the boat with them had doubts and fears when the storm came up and although he challenged their doubt a bit, Jesus calmed the storm. Yeah, he essentially accepted their doubt, but then took them to a deeper level. Here’s something else I’d like you brothers to speak into. Sometimes I wonder if we think in terms of quantity of faith as in a little bit of faith, a little more faith, lots of faith. 

And I’m not saying that we shouldn’t, and I think there’s some truth there, but I was just struck when the disciples came to Jesus and they said, increase our faith. We’ve got a little faith, make it a lot of faith. Seems like a great question. And then Jesus says, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you could do this amazing thing, right? 

Right. Almost as if to say, he didn’t answer their question about how to grow their faith to make it bigger. He basically said, you’ve got enough faith. Right. Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? It is so fascinating. And I don’t know, but one of my thoughts that goes along with that passage it seems to me that part of Jesus’s focus or message there is I’m not as concerned about how much faith you have as what you’re putting your faith in. 

Yes, and if you have faith in me, no matter how big or small that is, it’s enough. Yeah. And I think that’s such a beautiful, exciting, freeing picture for me. There’s an old adage. I think one of the early church fathers said that if you throw a plank over a creek to cross it, you can be as sure or as scared to cross fearing that it might collapse and whether you are or not, you get across dry. 

It’s not about how afraid you are or how sure or how doubtful you were in it, it’s the size of the plank. The size of the plank is what makes all the difference, and again, to your point, it’s what your faith is in, and so it can be like a mustard seed, but it can have a great end. Yeah, and along with that, I think it’s important to note that Jesus never really said it would be easy to have this kind of faith. 

In John chapter 6, the disciples came to him and said, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus didn’t diminish that at all. He didn’t say, oh, there’s no work involved here, there’s no effort involved here. He didn’t say just simply believe, just have a childlike faith or something to that effect. 

He said, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. He said, believing on me is going to take some work. You know, there’s going to be effort, there’s going to be struggle, there’s going to be labor here, there’s going to be sweat. This faith that we’re talking about, the mustard seed or the plank, it’s not necessarily just going to be an easy journey. 

It’s going to require work to have this faith. And I think God has designed it that way, that we grow in him. And we grow through those experiences. Yeah, and I think that’s such a helpful picture there that you’re pointing out to us John, just the reality that again Jesus expects this to be a challenge. We won’t be devoid of doubt but welcome that and see that as something we can step into. The faith that the scriptures are robust enough to carry us because of who God is, because of who Jesus is, because of the Spirit working in us. 

And it’s not necessarily because we have all the answers or that faith is such that we don’t ever question or any of that, but it’s part of the faith process of growing and exploring and being open to those sorts of things. Yeah, Brian. And I think that’s one of the reasons this conversation is so relevant today. To cite some statistics from the Pew Research Organization, people who are 50 and over, in this culture in which we live, 70 percent would say that they have a very strong belief in God, and 65 percent would say that religion is very important to them. 

But, for those who are 30 and under, only 50 percent in our culture today say that they have a very strong belief in God and only 40 percent would say that religion is very important to them. So, we are living in a time when the younger generations among us are walking away from faith and partly that’s due to doubts going unaddressed. 

And partly that’s due to doubts being pushed to the side or swept under the rug along with these questions that young people have. And something I just ran across the other day, John, was that the younger generation somehow has come to the conclusion that the church has rejected science. 

And it’s such a false conclusion. And again, if we can open this conversation up and talk about doubts and talk about the things that are provoked through science and that the church isn’t against science, actually, Matt, you could speak really well into this, that this can be a relationship that’s a good one. 

It’s not, you know, you don’t have to choose one of the other. Yeah. I believe it was Augustine who said, Scripture is from God and science is from God, and they’re not going to oppose themselves. If they seem to oppose themselves, we have an incorrect understanding of Scripture, or we have an incorrect understanding of science. 

They’re both from God, so they’re not going to oppose each other. And it would be improper for anyone to think that Christianity would in any way be in opposition to science, or science in opposition to Christianity. Or that faith would be the opposite of science, or vice versa. Because they’re both from God, and properly understood, complement each other. 

John, you mentioned those statistics of doubt becoming more prevalent among the younger. Would you say that maybe part of that is that we have cloaked the doubt that always has existed and have not addressed it in open ways that our children can learn from and they’re dealing with it differently? 

I think that’s true, Matt. I think it’s been a taboo topic for a few generations. And because it’s been a taboo topic, it seems like young people are forced to take sides. And unnecessarily so. We’ve addressed other taboo topics in the church throughout the years and have come to a healthier church because of that. 

And I think we will become a healthier church also if we address doubt up front, and the personal doubts that we carry, and maybe how to work through those, and how to come out on the other side of those stronger than what we were. Someone said that doubt is the ants in the pants of faith. Doubt is what keeps our faith active, and doubt is what keeps our faith moving and keeps us going. Without any doubt, we would become complacent. 

But we mentioned that many people go through seasons of doubt and sometimes it does lead to unbelief. I think statistics show that 12 percent of people who go through deep periods of doubt actually end up walking away from faith. Another 7 percent say that their faith is weaker. 

But 53 percent said after the season of doubt I came through with a stronger faith. And I think that’s probably because it was doubt correctly handled. And this is where we’re going to cut in and hit pause in the conversation for today’s broadcast. I believe for me the topic has been raised and it’s been normalized in a sense and has been redeemed as we see it not the opposite of faith, but necessary to walk with faith. And when we return in our next episode, we’re going to continue this conversation with John and Brian. 

And we’re going to look at what then should we do with the doubts that we have? How should I walk with these doubts? I hope friends that you will join us back here at Breaking Bread. Thanks for being along. 

God doesn’t show up in our faith. God shows up in our faithfulness. And as we continue to proceed walking and persevering with him, the blessings come. Welcome friends to Breaking Bread, the podcast brought to you by Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services. I’m excited to get right into the conversation that we’re having on this topic with John Reinhardt and Brian Sutter. The topic is doubt. And in the last episode, both John and Brian helped us see that doubt is not the opposite of faith. Instead, doubt is necessary for faith. And so, in this conversation, what then must we do? How do we walk in faith with doubt? And we’re going to look at the man John the Baptist to be our guide. 

Thanks for being along. I think John the Baptist, of course, is just a fascinating individual. First of all, I can’t imagine what his childhood was like. You know, can you imagine growing up and having your mom and dad tell you the experiences that surrounded your birth? That you leaped in the womb and that your father was doing incense, and the angel Gabriel came to him and anyway, John the Baptist was certainly raised in an environment of strong faith. 

And then, of course, we know that John the Baptist understood his role as the forerunner of Christ. He’s the one who sort of publicly announced that he was not worthy to baptize Jesus, that he’s not worthy to unlatch his sandals, behold the Lamb of God. John the Baptist was the one who really expressed strong faith in Christ. 

He was the first one to do so. Yeah. Publicly, he was the first one to do so. And he was emboldened when Christ began to manifest himself with his group of disciples. John had the courage to take a stand before the Roman rulers telling Herod that his immoral decisions were wrong, and they were sinful. 

And I suppose that John the Baptist thought, like many of the other good Jewish leaders of the time, that Christ was going to restore Israel in victory over the Roman rulers, that would be my guess. And so, John the Baptist had the courage and the nerve to challenge the Roman rulers, and he got himself thrown into prison as a result. 

I would guess that he was really reeling with this. Wait a minute here. I’m getting thrown into prison. Almost on a whim. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that to him. I mean, who cares? And then all of a sudden, he’s probably reeling with his decision and what’s God’s will in this and maybe I’ve messed all of this up. It really strikes near to my own experiences. Yeah, it does, and I think it’s also fascinating to think about if given what you’ve just described there, John, for him to admit that he was experiencing doubt had to be a terrifying thing. 

Like, he’s at the forefront of trying to rally people from him over to this Christ, this Messiah, and now, it’s not going the way he thought. And to allow doubt and be open about that had to be just a terrifying thing, I would think. Yeah. I would certainly think so, as he sat in those prisons, and I don’t know, of course, how many reports he received from others. 

We know that he was able to send messages out and receive messages. And for him to hear that Jesus was not making friends with the Pharisees at all, not making friends with the Jewish leaders at all. He seemed to be making friends with the poor and the sick and the needy. And how is this going to restore Israel to its kingship? 

I can only imagine the thoughts that he must have had while he was in that prison and how the doubts must have surfaced. And then for him to reflect upon that while he reflected upon the work that he had done as a forerunner of Christ, it must have been a very difficult emotional time for him. You know what’s fascinating to me? Here we have this great man, great prophet, right? Who speaks God’s Word and God didn’t tell him everything. Isn’t that amazing? I mean, there’s a proverb that says it’s a glory of a king to conceal a matter, you know? It’s like, only the real powerful sovereigns can conceal and keep parts of themselves back. 

And it’s almost as if God deliberately kept back part of John’s understanding. And that gap was the source of his doubt. And I think, again, there’s a few different ways you can go with that. One, it can be encouraging because I think you can connect with that, and again, be really frustrated and discouraged. 

Both of those are true, and being able to embrace both of those, but trying then to land more in that place of, boy, that makes me like John. That makes me like one of Christ’s disciples. And that’s a good place to be. It’s not necessarily comfortable, but that’s what it means to be a man or woman of faith. 

And it’s hard. Yeah. And not only did John the Baptist question and wonder, what is God doing in my life? But his doubts went even deeper. He got to the point of actually doubting the divinity of Christ himself. He said, Jesus, are you the one who we should look for? Or is there someone else? He actually questioned whether Christ was the Son of God, was Christ really the Messiah? 

And that’s a deeper level of doubt than just saying, I don’t understand what God is doing in my life. This is a level that’s saying, I really don’t know if I believe in this God. So, he was taken to a really deeper level. Yeah. John, what do we learn from John the Baptist? How did he handle that? How did he handle that doubt? 

And the reason why we raised the question is for all of us, what lessons should we learn from John the Baptist about how we should deal with doubt? Yeah. If I could share another statistic with you, 40 percent of Christians who doubt do nothing about their doubts. It would be as if someone was having chest pains and they just said, oh, it’ll go away. 

It’s a matter to address. So, the first thing I think we learned from John is that he did address it. He was honest with himself, he was honest with God, and he said, I have these questions that are unresolved in my mind, and I need to be honest with myself and with others. He was honest with others and with his God about this. 

And I think that’s a starting point when we have questions. So, we’re going to start with that one, to be honest with yourself to realize I’m dealing with doubt. Brian, I’d like you to speak to that self-disclosure of sorts. And I think that’s such an important key just to be able to recognize that it’s present and then not to reel away from that, but to step towards it. 

And what I mean by that is to step towards this reality. Okay. I am experiencing doubt. And God is a person I can go to with that doubt, that I can dialogue there, that the people he’s put around me are going to be able to connect with this experience and be able to walk through this with me. 

Whereas Satan wants to tell us that we can’t because we’re in leadership, and how could I do that, or I’ll scare somebody else, or all these other reasons to hide and pull away from the things that are really most helpful. And so, if we can notice that and recognize what we really need to do is step towards God, step towards the people that he has, that’s the way through doubt in a healthy way, even though it’s very scary. 

And Brian, that’s exactly what John the Baptist did after acknowledging his doubt. He sent a message to Jesus, went directly to Jesus, as directly as he could go. He couldn’t get out of prison, but he sent a message directly to Jesus and asked him that question and said, Are you the one? And so, he was up front, like you said, he stepped into it, and he stepped towards God, not away from God. 

He stepped towards Jesus, not away from Jesus with his doubts. And that’s critical, and I think you mentioned before, doubt has different trajectories. And you’ve really illustrated that here with John the Baptist, that his doubt sent him on a trajectory towards Jesus. Yeah. And that’s a critical fork in the road. 

Yeah. It really is. And when it’s moving us that way, that’s a good thing. I think one of the challenges, even in our day and age, that our tendency, when we run into something, we learn, but instead of going to other people or going to the Lord, we go to the Internet, and that’s a great source of information, but again, it’s done in isolation, usually. 

And instead, we have to know that God welcomes us towards him in that, and he’s put people around us that have walked this before, and their experience and their expertise is being heard. It is paramount to be able to walk forward in this. Yeah, John, did John the Baptist include that larger community? 

Yes, and I think that’s a third point we can learn from him. First, he was honest and upfront with himself, and he was forthcoming with his God about his doubts. Second, he stepped towards God and stepped towards Christ. And the third thing he did was utilize the faith community that he had, which was very limited, but he utilized them. 

There were those with him, and he said, I want you to help me through this. I want you to go talk to Jesus. I want you to get answers for me. And so, I think that’s a third critical component is to utilize our faith community, utilize our churches, utilize our brotherhood, utilize our fellow believers. As we take a walk through this, 45 percent of doubters stop going to church. 

They just walk away. And that is not healthy. That’s not helpful. Yeah, and then I love Jesus’s response when those questions were asked. How did Jesus respond? Did he scold him or how did he entreat him? Yeah, I think one of the most beautiful pieces of all Scripture is Jesus’s response when those messengers from John the Baptist came to him. Jesus did not scold him. He did not reprimand him. I could picture myself, if I were in Jesus shoes, saying, John, don’t you remember all we’ve been through together? Don’t you remember what you said? Don’t you remember what we did? But Jesus did none of that. It was at that time, when those messengers came to Jesus, that Jesus said to the whole group, he said, you know what? 

There is no man born among women any greater. So, in the midst of John’s deepest doubt, Jesus affirmed him, it was almost as if Jesus was saying, John, I know you question me right now, but I don’t question you. I know your faith in me is weak right now, but my faith in you is strong. I believe in you and I’m going to be with you through this. 

So, I think the affirmation that Jesus gave to John was absolutely beautiful. The second piece that I think is equally beautiful is Jesus quoted passages of Isaiah. He said, look at what I’m doing. The deaf hear, the blind see, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Maybe John, you should relook at Scripture. Look at it through a different light. You’re not seeing this Messiah the way the Messiah is supposed to be seen. And sometimes I think that’s revealing to what God would say. You know what? You’ve got a filter, a lens through which you’re looking at life. Maybe it’s the lens that’s wrong. Maybe it’s the lens that needs to be changed. 

I appreciate that. And Brian, we all struggle with doubts and that must surface in conversations, and you probably find yourself walking with a person through doubt. What have you learned by doing that? Yeah, well, I would just echo so many things there that John’s mentioned and just going back to one thing he said there, I think that really as we walk through life, God is faithful to continue to move our view and perspective of life to this place that he is the center of the storyline, that he is the one who is to be proclaimed and glorified and worshipped. 

And I think a lot of times that becomes more evident to us through our doubts and through the disappointments that happen. It’s certainly not easy, but in that, to see he has the power. It’s the Savior that comes alongside us in our hurts and to have the picture that’s how he interacted with John and how he interacts with us, not as a harsh master that says, you’ve got to get this figured out before you can come to me, but that he welcomes us into that and massages us and moves us along, that he wants us to walk through that. 

He doesn’t want to just leave us there, but he doesn’t expect us to have zero doubt either. Yeah. Christ steps into our doubt. Right. He always grows larger when he does. And so, for us to have doubt is a space, is a gap for him to step into. Right. That must be one of the reasons why he doesn’t shirk it or be afraid of it, but yet perhaps has designed it that way. 

Right. Yeah. And I think you see that as a consistent message in the Scriptures and it’s not always framed as doubt, but just as, you know, struggle or suffering or difficulties are really meant to help drive us deeper into him. And that’s really the Lord’s heart for us is knowing that what’s best for us is him and using whatever means he will to help us move closer to him, because that’s really what’s best for us. 

But that process is often really painful. Yeah. And I think it’s instructive to remember that John the Baptist never did see the kingdom of Christ fully come. His life would end before he saw the crucifixion, before he saw the resurrection, before he saw the whole Pentecost experience. John never did see what all the glory of God was meant to be through him. 

And what his life was going to mean, he never did get all the answers figured out, but at the same time he understood and Christ would have him to understand that he was a part of that. And we aren’t necessarily guaranteed to always get the answers figured out ourselves. And that makes me think one of the challenges in walking through times of doubt with those who are struggling, is that there are doubts where we just come to a place of acceptance with it. 

Some of us more so than others, like, how do I know for sure that I’m saved? Or how do I know for sure that when I was making that commitment to Christ early in my life that was genuine? And those sorts of doubts, sometimes there’s a certain type of doubt that just feeds off of that uncertainty and the reality that you can’t know for sure what your motive was, you can’t know for sure some of those answers. 

And just to trust that the Lord knows. and that we have to move forward trusting that it’s okay, not because that we’ve done this right or because we have the full answer, but because of who Christ is, it’s okay, especially in those places where Satan can work us over when it comes to our faith. Brian, what comes to me is 1 John, where it says, you know, if your heart condemns you, I’m greater than your heart, which is really I think speaking to what you’re saying that sometimes our minds and our hearts condemn us. 

Yeah, and what a freeing concept that we’re not saved by the aptitude of our brains, but we’re saved apart from that. Is that part of the good news? It is. And that speaks to just how you want so much to have strong faith and yet our heart can condemn us and yet in that, there’s hope because there’s something bigger than our heart. 

Again, to have that be the primary focus, whereas our tendency, or Satan’s really good at getting us to just really focus in on the doubt and then it feels like that’s all that’s there because we get such laser focus on the doubt that we experience, the questions that are there, the uncertainties that are there. 

But if we can zoom out a bit and see the wonder of God and how big he is, all of a sudden, those doubts, they’re still there maybe, but in comparison to the wonder of God and his bigness and all these other truths that we can know, begin to diminish a bit. Yeah, and one of Jesus’s responses to those messengers that came from John the Baptist was, blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. 

Or another way of saying that would be blessed or happy are those if you don’t stumble, if you keep on moving forward, and you find, like you said, the bigness of God, the glory of God, if you find the blessedness of that, if you find the joy that is in there, and keep on persevering and keep on going with that walk, with a sense of the joy of Jesus, with a sense of the glory of God, you will find blessing in that. It’s not always in knowing the answers. It’s not always in having faith as strong as you want it to be. But sometimes God doesn’t show up in our faith. God shows up in our faithfulness as we continue to proceed in walking and persevering with him then the blessings come often not when we’re pondering the deep meaning of the questions that we have but oftentimes in our faithfulness.  

Yeah, my parents’ first child was a beautiful little girl and that’s probably one of the times when we just marvel at God the most when we see the birth of a new baby and we just think how magnificent God is. Three years later that little girl would die. And there’s probably hardly a time that’s more challenging to faith than to lose a child. 

And there’s probably hardly a time that we question God more than in the loss of a child. And yet I was able to see my parents, as I grew older, even though they went through the mountaintop experiences and then the deep valley experiences, still find the blessedness there was in persevering in a faithful walk. 

And I think that’s one of the things that Jesus was saying, John the Baptist, in the midst of your doubts, you’re going to find joy if you keep on keeping on and keep on moving forward in your march towards God. Thanks for sharing that John.  

Well, I would just share one little analogy and that is in how a pearl is developed in an oyster. My understanding is that a pearl begins to form around an irritant. Whether it’s a little small grain of sand or maybe it’s a little parasite. There’s some little annoying irritant that gets into an oyster. And left untreated, that irritant will just continue to cause pain and struggle. But an oyster develops a little chemical called a nacre, and it coats that little irritant, and it coats it repeatedly, and repeatedly, and repeatedly for a long, long time. 

And eventually, that irritant turns into a pearl. And I think we have a good analogy there in that doubt can be an irritant. But if we address it properly through prayer, through Scripture, through fellowship, through resources like ACCFS offers, through ministries, through serving, through walks of faithfulness, through loving others, just following that Christian path and continually coating that irritant. The irritant never does go away, but it gets coated with some beautiful Christian services and Christian disciplines and it turns out in the end to be a beautiful pearl. And I think we’ve seen that with a lot of lives. People have had difficulties and questions, but they’ve handled them like you have discussed here today and those lives turned out to be real pearls. 

I love that. Yeah, that’s good, John, I appreciate that. It is one of those things as we read the Scriptures and it tells us that faith comes by hearing and I think like you’ve just mentioned there, John, one of the things I would encourage people is to just keep reading, keep praying, keep talking and sharing with the people that God’s put around them. And not because they’ll have answers and not because you’ll find certainty. If you’re interacting with doubt and the goal is certainty, you’re going to be really discouraged and frustrated, but if you can engage the journey of doubt as just a journey to get to know God, a journey to explore the wonder of who he is and whatever answers are there to enjoy those and whatever aren’t there to see that as just the magnificence of who he is. 

And of course, there’s going to be things we don’t have the answers to rather than a journey towards certainty. I just would echo that and saying, sometimes we would like doubt to disappear with some cliche answer, you know, just some easy answer, make it go away. But do we really want that? Or do we want to grow in our faith because of our doubt and then become a stronger follower of Christ? 

And like you said, Matt, a greater example. Because we walk by faith in the midst of doubt rather than walking in certainty apart from doubt. I love that. You know, I think of Doubting Thomas, right? He earned the name because he wanted to see the Lord and Jesus response to him, blessed are those who believe without seeing, almost as if to say, blessed are those who believe with some doubt, as opposed to certainty like you’ve got now. 

Which is really kind of a special thing, and as I conclude in my own thoughts, I appreciate both of you brothers talking about raising this issue of doubt. This is real and this is normal, and this is part of the disciplined walk of a believer. We acknowledge it. We take it to Jesus, and we include our community in it. I feel like I’ve really been blessed as both of you spoke on this issue as I’ve come to realize that what greater article of faith is there than a person to walk faithful in doubt? 

Is there any article of faith greater than that a person walk faithfully in doubt? Because that person is resigning all of their sense to God. I appreciate you both being here. And to our listeners, thanks for being along. It’s been our heart’s desire that this topic and this conversation would be a blessing to you, would encourage and bolster your faith, and allow you to walk faithfully with the doubts that you carry. 

Like always, we always welcome feedback. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] with suggestions, questions, and comments. Thank you for being with us.