DOUBT-It's common for everyone. We doubt someone's word, we doubt our perception of events, we doubt that the news anchor people are telling us the truth. The secular world sometimes embraces doubt and sometimes encourages it, depending on the circumstances. Newscasters and politicians want you to believe everything they say-scientists want you to question everything and then come up with a scientific answer for it. =]

But for Christians, the water is somewhat muddy on doubt. I would venture to say that we all have SOME doubts regarding our faith, but it's not something we'd talk about openly. We tend to feel embarrassed about our doubting, as if we are less of a Christian for having these problems. Some churches even teach that doubt is a sin against God. So we often try to hide them or ignore them, and they end up growing like mildew in a damp shower.

We need to define our concepts of doubt. There are two kinds of doubt-Willful Doubt and Willing Doubt.

1) Willful doubt is the kind that says "I can't believe this because my mind can't conceive it, therefore it must not be true."

2) Willing doubt says instead "This doesn't make sense, how can this be? Show me how this is true."

A willing doubter is someone who doubts but is willing to learn, to have their mind changed, to grow and expand. A willful doubter is just that-full of will. She's already made up her mind.

Yet, people will say, doubting is a sin! It shows you don't have enough faith in God!

Hold that thought! Didn't God make us to be questioning beings? Aren't we supposed to exercise "critical thinking" (willing doubt) in order to explore our world and our relationship with our Lord? If there wasn't some doubt, we would accept everything everyone said about God as true!

Doubt that is willing is NOT a sin! Because God has given us questioning minds. He has made our very natures to know how and why things work. In Acts 17:11 he shows a good instance of doubt: "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

The Bereans were doubting Paul's word! They were checking it with Scripture to confirm its accuracy. And yet the Bible calls them people of "noble character!"

Now let's look at one of the most infamous of willful doubters in the Bible. She was the wife of King Ahab, and the major influence in his life. Jezebel promoted Baal worship. She had God's prophets killed. And she was ready to do the same to Elijah.  Elijah, in the meantime, was going around proving God was the One, Only, and True God. He at last managed to impress the hard-hearted Ahab to that effect. (Read the story in 1 Kings 18). Ahab runs home to tell his wife all about it. You can just hear him saying, "Look what Elijah did! He called on his God and a fire started on wet wood! He called on his God and the rains came!"

What did Jezebel say to this? (1 Kings 19:1-2) Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets (of Baal) with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make you life like that of one of them."

Jezebel was a willful doubter. She wouldn't have believed the Lord if he came down in person, stood in front of her, and displayed all his power for her to see.

We all go through periods of willful doubt. Perhaps you say to yourself "I just can't believe in God's miracles. After all, science shows us that the biblical prophets were just able to take advantage of convenient natural events."

But willful doubt doesn't give the Holy Spirit the go ahead to work in our lives and change our hearts. When we have willful doubt, we are saying to the Lord, "Because I think it is my way, that's the way it is, whether you think so or not!" Of course, this IS a sinful attitude. When you find yourself experiencing willful doubt,

1)         Pray for forgiveness (1 John 1:9)

2)         Ask God to lead you to a willing, open heart

3)         Take out your doubt, examine it, and start reading scripture with an open mind.

There are also ways to deal with willing doubt.

1)  Don't beat yourself up about it! Satan likes  to bring us guilt for doubting. He whispers in our ears that we can't REALLY be mature Christians if these doubts keep cropping up. But willing doubt only means we're functioning the way God created us. Look to him for the answers, and Satan's whispers will fade away!

2)  Don't shove them down for fear of embarrassing yourself. Get the feeling out in the open with a Christian friend or pastor or someone you respect.

3)  Search the Scriptures for answers. If you feel you've sinned, claim 1 John 1:9 and get on with it, don't dwell on it.

Don't let your doubt control you. Let it give you a fresh perspective on the Word of the Lord!

~HOST CO Heather