Doubt and Trust

suspicion as part of faith

Take your doubt to these sections :
doubts on big things,
back and forth,
what it means to have faith,
what is trust?
Quotes on doubt

Doubts on important matters

a site user writes:

>> I've been getting doubts about Jesus'
>> resurrection lately. Lots of doubts.
>> And doubts about His place in my life.
>> Can you help me?

I wish I could. But that'd be hard to do, since a resurrection 2000 years ago can't be proved or demonstrated.

The best I can do is ask you to read the gospels again. They testify that Christ's resurrection was the winning action of a wider, broader story, about how God wants to make this world and its people whole and bring them back into relationship with Him. You know how people are, and you have some idea of how God is. What kind of a God is this God of your world? What do you see of God in your life, and in the Bible? Does this resurrection stuff fit with what this God is like? And what does it mean for you that God is this way? Pray about it, and let your prayers guide your thoughts. Maybe God will give you just the right insight to grasp what's at the heart of Christ's being risen.

Doubt's not something to flee, even when you doubt God. Doubt means your mind isn't switched off and your emotions are active and involved. Doubt makes you want to test, to try out, to ask around, to understand. It's the only way to get past the idea that you're being lied to. (Indeed, many religious leaders lie to you a lot.) You need to have at least enough suspicion to wonder and ask questions. The only way past these doubts is to go through them, sorting them out mostly based on the kind of character God has. Then you can find cause to doubt your doubts. Faith is not what you know, it's what and/or Who you trust. Trust God enough to lead you forward.

I'm trusting God will do that for you.
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Vacillation

A site user writes:

> I haven't been given a gift yet,
> and it's been months since Christ took me in.
> I'm always vacillating between faith and doubt.
> Is that my problem?

No, that means you're *alive*. You will doubt Christ. Not always, perhaps, but a little most of the time and a lot some of the time. Ask the Lord to help you with your unbelief. As you turn your doubt over to God, the Spirit harnesses it, using it to help you learn and discern. When you doubt, you're likely to pass up the opportunities God gives you to use your gifts. Yet, doubt grows you up, and strips away the plush-toy aspects of the way you hold your faith. Many people panic over discovering they still doubt Christ. Remember what Jesus said about faith the size of a mustard seed; it doesn't take much faith for God to work!

If God gives you tongues, rejoice! If God gives you prophetic words, rejoice! If God gives you understanding of people, or a way with kids, or a keen nose for hogwash, rejoice! We all get some sort of gift, often several gifts. Let God show you the blessing you're given. Trust that, and don't worry about what you don't have or whether your doubts stop your gifts. Don't be so concerned about getting gifts, but about being a gift to others, in Christ's name, doubts and all. Who knows, you may suddenly talk up a stream of tongues one day -- and just as suddenly never do it again. But you can still live each day for Christ.

more on spiritual gifts,
and living in the questions.
to the letters index
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Quotes on Doubt

doubt's up-side and down-side

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Kahlil Gibran

Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door.
Benjamin Jowett

To doubt is a misfortune, but to seek when in doubt is an indispensable duty. So he who doubts and seeks not is at once unfortunate and unfair.
Blaise Pascal

When in doubt, win the trick.
Edmund Hoyle, *24 Rules*, rule 12

Doubt indulged soon becomes doubt realized.
Frances Havergal, *Royal Bounty*

The wound of peace is surety,
Surety secure; but modest doubt is called
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To th' bottom of the worst.
Hector, in William Shakespeare's *Troilus and Cressida*, act 2, ii

Doubt is the vestibule of faith.
Charles Caleb Colton