Is Doubt a Dirty Word? Spiritual Journeys Bible Study Blog

 

Is doubt a dirty word? Is it a moral failure? Will God hold you accountable for your doubt? Is doubt the reason why your prayers aren't answered?

Tonight, we dug into the opening paragraphs of the Epistle of James. Anyone who knows this book well knows that James's takes a very stern, black-and-white, in-or-out approach to the Christian faith. Martin Luther hated the book of James, calling it "the Epistle of Straw." The verses we looked at certainly caused us discomfort:

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶ But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸ Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (NIV)

Right away, we asked, "If you are ill and pray for healing, and your illness becomes worse, has God denied you healing due to your doubts?"

If we take James's words at face value, the answer world probably be yes. However, there is no such thing as prayer without faith. If you doubt God, would you pray at all?

Every one who has faith experiences doubt. Think of it this way: even though I'm righteous before God through my baptism into Christ's death and resurrection, I will remain a sinner for as long as I live. I will never reach absolute perfection. The same holds true for faith. The question is, which one will I live by? By faith, or by doubt? The danger of doubt comes when you feel tempted to surrender all faith, and simply give up on God. As James later writes, "those who do not ask do not receive" (cf. 4:2).

We recalled from our last session how doubt begins-- a crisis or trauma strikes, which turns all of your life upside-down. Something happened to you that you never thought could happen. God does not answer your prayers by taking the crisis away. Where once, you had peace, now you have only anxiety, uncertainty, anger, and pain. You are absolutely helpless to resolve the crisis or heal the trauma. This is when doubt is born. 

We only add to our pain when we view doubt as the failure of our faith, especially if we believe that God's back is now turned on us because we have doubt. None of this is true.

Faith is not something you create on your own. You can only receive faith from God. Even though you can nurture your faith through prayer, devotion, worship, fellowship, and service, you are powerless to eliminate doubt. 

Fortunately, your God does not reject doubters. God loves doubters. God receives your doubts with compassion and mercy. 

In seasons of crisis and change, the Holy Spirit will minister to your doubts by pruning away old beliefs, assumptions, and ideas which have been detrimental to your faith. The end result is that your faith will be stronger, and you will become closer in your relationship with God. When we are honest with God (and each other) about our doubts, we are opening ourselves to healing and renewal.

The Church's challenge is to be a safe place for doubts to gather and give voice to their doubts. Jesus meant for his church to be a hospital for sinners and a refuge for doubters. We do not minister to doubters by answering their doubts with one-liners and cliches (e.g. "you must have faith;" "God doesn't give you more than you can handle"). We are called to walk alongside each other through our places of doubt, praying for and caring for each other along the way. Nothing relies the soul burdened with doubt quite like real people praying for you helping to meet your needs. Jesus didn't put us here to "fix" people. We're here to love people, steadfastly and unconditionally. 

At the end of the day, we all have doubts--but those doubts are far less burdensome when we bear them together in love. 

By the grace of God, we go through and emerge from seasons of doubt--with God's grace making us stronger and more Christ-like along the way.

Never give up on prayer, and never give up on God.