Inevitably you will bump up against some situations that cause you to doubt. A financial blow that came out of nowhere. Your spouse tells you they want a divorce. You get laid off. A situation goes from bad to worse and you find yourself asking, “Where are you God? Are you paying attention? Why is this happening? Why won’t you answer my prayers?”
We find ourselves in this situation when we have a dream of how we think our life should turn out but the life we are living looks nothing like it. In fact, it feels like the exact opposite.
Your career was supposed to be a rocket ship ride to the top, but you find yourself going back to school. Your spouse was your soulmate, but now they won’t even talk to you. Your future involved a fit spouse, a white picket fence, 2 car garage, and 1.5 kids with a Labradoodle. But you’re home alone in your apartment watching another season of the Bachelor.
If life hasn’t turned out the way you think it should, if you think you haven’t gotten what you signed up for and it’s caused you to doubt God, there is someone in the New Testament that can totally relate to what you’re feeling.
It’s one of my favorite stories and it has brought such comfort to me in my times of doubts. His name is John the Baptist.
If you aren’t familiar with John the Baptist he was the one who baptized Jesus. When he baptized Jesus he saw something like a dove come down from Heaven. John and everyone else heard a voice from Heaven say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased.” Pretty spectacular stuff! (Matt 3:16-17) John spent his whole life preparing the way for the Messiah and then telling people that Jesus was that Messiah (John 1:29-30).
John the Baptist seems to me like a take no prisoners type of guy. He wore goat skins, ate locust and honey. He didn’t care what people thought about him. He just said it like it was. Zero political correctness. He was even so bold that he told King Herod he shouldn’t marry his brother’s wife, who scholars also tell us was his niece. Of course this lands John the Baptist in jail. Once John learns that he was to be beheaded for his bold message we see a very different side of John the Baptist. A side that doesn’t seem so confident and bold.
John had a huge following himself. Lots of people were going out in the wilderness to listen to this crazy guy preach. He was a guy who seemed not to care what others thought. Why should he? Since the Messiah had finally come things were only going to get better.
But things didn’t get better…at least not for John the Baptist.
Sometimes people are shocked that when they start to follow God their circumstances don’t get better but in some cases they even get worse. It’s easy to be surprised by that if you think God is a magic bullet. “Just say ‘Jesus’ 15 times and spin around 3x and poof your credit card bills are gone, your marriage troubles are history, and no more cancer.”
People forget we have an enemy who is seeking to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). Your enemy doesn’t want you pursuing after God. He wants to steal your joy. He wants to destroy any spiritual growth. He wants to kill any belief that God is good.
We forget this is earth and not Heaven. Jesus promised us we will have troubles but we wouldn’t be overcome by them (John 16:33).
Back to John the Baptist…He finds himself alone, in prison, and awaiting execution. Life didn’t turn out the way he thought it would, which I’m sure gives him lots of time to reflect on things. We see that John the Baptist has a burning question that he wants his friends to go ask Jesus.
What question would you want to ask Jesus when life doesn’t turn out the way you think it should?
John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Matthew 11:2-3
Did you catch the significance of John’s question? Read it again. “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
Wait a minute! Is that really in the Bible?!?
John spent his whole life telling people Jesus was the One and then when life didn’t turn out how he thought it should he was so full of doubt he wasn’t even sure at a core level that Jesus was really who He said He was.
John had been telling everyone Jesus was the One, but when his head was on the chopping block he wasn’t so sure.
We sometimes think…if I could just have a sign I wouldn’t doubt…or I would believe. No, you wouldn’t. John baptized Jesus. He saw miracles performed. He heard the voice of God from heaven and still had a significant crisis of faith because of his circumstances.
I feel sorry for John’s friends. Not only did they have to ask Jesus this potentially insulting question but they had to do it in front of other people who probably weren’t having the crisis of faith John was.
How would you have liked to have that job? “Um…Jesus, we have a question for you. Don’t take this the wrong way. We aren’t accusing you of lying, but are you really the Messiah or should we keep looking?”
How do you think Jesus is going to respond?
Is Jesus going to say… “Of course I am! Why would you ask such a dumb question? Go tell John to suck it up! Tell John to die with dignity. Tell John I’m disappointed in his weak faith and expected more from him!”
This is how Jesus responds:
Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.” -Matthew 11:4-6
As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind? Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces. Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.’ “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is! -Matthew 11:7-11
Jesus tells everyone that John the Baptist is the one the prophet Isaiah is referring to in Isaiah 40:3.
None greater than John the Baptist? Jesus can’t be serious. I mean first John tells everyone Jesus is the Messiah and now he is having this crisis of faith because of the circumstances he finds himself in and then Jesus tells everyone what an awesome guy John is?
Not the response I was expecting at all.
Maybe I’m not such a loser after all when I have doubts.
If this bold confident guy had doubts and Jesus doesn’t reprimand him…maybe Jesus isn’t angry with me either. Maybe doubts are part of the journey.
Maybe faith requires a few doubts.
When you read through scriptures you see that we have some pretty notable examples of doubters…John the Baptist…Abraham, Job,…even the disciples!
Faith doesn’t remove all doubts. If you have some doubts it doesn’t mean you have a character flaw and it doesn’t even mean you’re not a Christian or that you’re a second-class Christian.
Faith and doubt aren’t mutually exclusive. They actually go together. The very reason you need faith is because you have doubts. Let me say that again: the very reason you need faith is because you have doubts.
If you are waiting for all of your doubts to go away before you become a Christian you’ll never become one because even the greatest followers of Jesus had doubts.
I still have questions that I’m not sure about.
You often hear people speak of “blind faith” and “honest doubt” but I think those terms get mixed up. The people I know that have deep faith have “honest faith.” There are things they don’t know…times they wonder what God is up to but they stay on the path. Some of the people I know who are great doubters or skeptical or even cynical about faith are really “blind doubters”. I say that because there is no amount of truth or evidence that will ever change their minds about Jesus. It’s a closed issue. They don’t have honest doubt…they have blind doubt.
Honest faith says: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark 9:24)
So what do you do when you find yourself faced with doubts?
1. Stay on the Path
A few weeks ago we were helping with the town clean up day. I thought I knew where the meet-up location was but I was wrong. So I ate some humble pie and had to ask Siri for directions. She told me the best path was through the next subdivision on the right. I thought she was wrong. I had some major doubts about the directions she was giving me and the path she put me on. This can’t be right?!? I had a decision to make…stay on the path despite my doubts and trust that Siri could get me there OR go with my feelings.
Guess what? Despite my lack of faith I still ended up in the right place.
Some of you are thinking about changing paths. You are thinking about giving up on God or giving up on church because some things didn’t turn out the way you thought. Maybe you are thinking of giving up on a spouse or a dream and God brought you to this blog to say STAY ON THE PATH.
2. Lean on Others’ Faith
We wish we had a Siri for life. We wish we could pull her out and say get me to my desired destination. God gave us something better than that. He gave us each other. That’s why you need to find a church to put down some deep roots. Deep roots doesn’t mean just coming every week for an experience, it means getting involved. It means joining a small group, a Bible study, a serving team. For those of you who are introverts I know that’s hard but you’ve got to make yourself known and get to know some other people.
Here is why…faith is contagious. When you aren’t sure Jesus is the One…you can lean on the faith of others. When you feel too wrecked and drained to believe, others can believe for you and strengthen your faith. I’ve had this happen in my own life. Other pastors have talked me off the ledge, other friends have helped me see a perspective I couldn’t see. They believed for me until my faith was strong enough to believe for myself.
Be merciful to those who doubt -Jude 1:22
I’ve also had others lean on my faith at times. We need each other on this journey called life.
3. Remember You’re Only at the Middle
When we experience one of these moments that makes us doubt we think we have reached the end. We feel like our life is over, there is no future, there is no reason to hope. Things will never change.
We death spiral into doom and gloom. When you’re in that moment remind yourself: This isn’t the end. It’s only a negative turn. Every great story has a negative turn. It’s not the end of the story, it’s only a chapter, it’s only a season. Stay on the path.
