If you’ve never doubted, you’ve only half-believed.
Faith has never been easy, and doubts are not your enemy. Pretending is. Hear that again: Doubts are not your enemy. Pretending is.
If we’ve never doubted, if we’ve never wrestled with issues of faith, our belief is about as deep as a rain puddle. But when we struggle through seasons of doubt, we can emerge on the other side with a faith that is deep and tested.
It’s always been this way. Think back to the Old Testament and God’s chosen people. What’s their name in Scripture? Israel. Which means? “One who struggles with God.” The chosen ones are the ones who wrestle. The Lord loves the struggler and has no patience with the pretender.
God is not intimidated by our doubts. He wants our honesty, our questions, our uncertainty. He’d much rather we question him than ignore him. I’m not recommending this doubt as a place to live permanently; but if we find ourselves there from time to time, we don’t need to be frightened.
After all, our salvation depends on his cross and not our emotions.
If you are honest about where you are, Jesus is faithful to show who he is.
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The post you’ve just read is an excerpt from The Shadow Of A Doubt, available now from Abingdon Press.
In fact, it is super available at Good Shepherd this coming Saturday morning from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.
We sold out of books at our most recent signing event at church, so we have ordered a limited number of all three — The Shadow Of A Doubt, The Storm Before The Calm, and Head Scratchers.
So we wanted to schedule an event during the day and at the beginning of Christmas shopping season. As with all books sold at the church, 100% of the proceeds go to On Eagles’ Wings Ministry for young girls rescued from sex trafficking. Neither the church nor I make a dime off the sale of these books.
Remember: this Saturday, December 5 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. What better way to start your Christmas shopping?
