I don’t know about you, but in my mind, doubt stops by everyday.
Do you ever notice how everyday doubt comes?
Doubting God…
Doubting His promises…
and if I’m being transparent, sometimes doubting His existence.
When these thoughts come, they come in such a forceful scary way!
If I could translate the doubt into words, it sounds like someone in your mind saying:
“You don’t know everything! What if you really are believing a lie and you go through your whole life serving a false cause and never live how you want, for nothing!”
or…
“There are smart people who study so much literature and archeology and history who say God doesn’t exist, you think you could be smarter than them? No chance.”
or…
“You putting yourself last, living for God, not making an enjoyable life for yourself, getting mistreated… what if all you know about Jesus and His character is false? Then you wasted your life when you could’ve been happy.”
or even…
“What if it’s not Jesus? There are other religions that sound similar… how do you know Jesus is the actual Messiah and how do you know God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is the true God?… what if you’re wrong by the end of your life? What if you get it wrong and face consequences similar to what nonbelievers in Christianity face?”
“What if you’re wrong, and that wasn’t God?
What if it was just you? Or psychology? Or chance? Maybe you’re making something what it’s not!”
This is some examples of what comes to my idle mind during the typical day.
Notice how they all usually come from nowhere, caused by no external origin and they are sharp, threatening and scary!
They strike insecurities like “you couldn’t possibly be smarter than other people,” or “you will be wrong,” or “you won’t make a good life for yourself and it will be your fault!”
It’s overwhelming sometimes the amount of doubt that comes to a mind that isn’t even searching for reasons to doubt! A situation could be mundane or even just so regular! My day could not necessarily be bad! Just a usual day and out of nowhere… this thunderstorm of doubt in God!
Here is a prime example!
My mind searches for the weirdest and most secular songs to pop into my head, or even just not God-related songs.
It’s the hardest thing to replace them with worship songs yet when I have a worship song in my head, it’s easily taken away by random, non-worship songs.
Even Hannah Montana or Pocahontas songs will take the place of gospel songs…
Why is my mind so desperate to change the subject from God?
Is it my mind… or is it my flesh?
Well my flesh is very receptive but my flesh isn’t the root!
There is an enemy who is forceful, scary and sharp!
The enemy is forceful for me to not believe.
My mind rushes to doubt in a forceful way, yet it doesn’t do the same for believing in God…
Does it not seem odd that my mind can so easily channel what is not God and what is sinful, yet trying to keep focus on God is so difficult?
It almost seems that in my heart,
doubt is desperate to be heard while believing in God is not desperate to be heard!
I notice that, God never forcefully scares me into believing!
God isn’t yelling, kicking and screaming, in attempt to make me believe in Him and keep my mind set on Him!
He comes in a still small way…
“Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
I Kings 19:11-12 NKJV.
The enemy loudly and aggressively tries to get my attention, so I focus more on believing the doubt.
I never had a doubt in God that came sweetly and quietly, it always came abruptly and forceful; with selfish motives and always with fear attached.
Believing in God feels sweet… it’s quiet and subtle when it walks into my mind!
My response is joy and excitement, not fear and anxiety.
I never feel God kicking the door down in my heart and not letting me think of anything else!
After all, God doesn’t even want to scare us from the bad things, He wants to redirect our focus to the good things!
God doesn’t want to scare us, He wants to lead us from sin, using His open hand, not His fist!
That’s why God sent His Son to die for us, not to terrify us!
A Savior who gave us forgiveness and grace, not punishment and condemnation!
He gave us a chance not a death sentence!
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
John 3:17 NKJV.
Furthermore,
“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalms 103:10-12 NKJV.
If God has been showing us His compassion and gentleness, we can know that the Holy Spirit comes the same way!
God isn’t desperate for us to believe Him because He speaks the truth!
Only when someone is unsure if they are right but they really don’t want to be wrong or when someone is lying, do they get louder and more desperate for you to believe them!
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10 NKJV.
“Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
John 8:43-44 NKJV.
God offers truth, He does not force us to accept it.
That’s why the battle in your mind seems to have the doubting side fighting louder and more aggressive but it’s only because the enemy knows he’s lying!
God doesn’t need to lead by dropping darkness everywhere you turn, He leads us by simply lighting the way!
“Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
Psalms 119:105 NKJV.
Jesus doesn’t kick your mental door down…
He knocks on the door, like a gentleman and waits for a response.
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Revelation 3:19-20 NKJV.
“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
I John 4:16 NKJV.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
I John 4:18 NKJV.
Love isn’t forceful.
Love doesn’t need to torment you to get your attention.
Love doesn’t fight for its own way.
Love offers a way and leaves it on the table for you to have as soon as you decide to pick it up!
Love suffers long while still being kind.
Love isn’t rude.
Love endures…
Even if that means you might never pay attention to it.
as stated in:
God has no reason to force us because His ultimate Goal is love!
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
II Timothy 1:7 NKJV.
A sound mind!
Not an anxious, frightened, confused and troubled mind!
So if we hear any other spirit…
A spirit of…
fear.
Anger.
Anxiety.
Confusion.
Instability.
Discontentment.
Hopelessness.
Sorrow.
Dread.
Doubt.
We already know it was not a spirit given from God!
In Revelation 12:10-12,
We learn how the enemy approaches us!
Accusing.
Which is forceful and fearful…
“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.””
It says his wrath is greater because he knows that he doesn’t have much time to turn us from God!
He is forceful and aggressive because he doesn’t have time to do things slowly and quietly!
In the end, it’s the end… and he is rushing desperately to turn our eyes from God!
Think about it!
The enemy knows his fate but
he doesn’t know when Jesus is coming back!
Any day could be the last for him so everyday he’s desperate to destroy our faith!
That’s why he comes accusing and forceful in his attempts to make us doubt!
God isn’t like this!
God doesn’t need to worry about time.
God doesn’t need to rush us or force us; He is not desperate to make us agree with Him.
So, He comes peacefully with a still small voice.
That’s all He needs.
This is how we know it’s God!
God is not forceful.
God is love.
Love is…
You know…
I Corinthians 13:4-7.
Photo by Vlad Bagacian
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
