Weekly Magazine | Wrestling With Doubt
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Dear Friends,
What if He isn’t listening? Or, what if what I’ve believed all these years isn’t true?
If you’ve wrestled with these questions, you’re not alone! These questions don’t mean your faith is weak.
Having questions and doubts is natural, and may be the beginning of a deeper faith.
This week, we're bringing our questions honestly to God. The God who created you isn't intimidated by your questions, or disappointed by your struggles. He welcomes you to bring them to Him, trusting that even in the middle of uncertainty, He is still present, still faithful, and still drawing you closer.
Encouraging you in God’s truth,
Thank God for Doubt | Katherine O'Neill
What if doubt isn't a detour away from God, but the very road that leads you deeper in? Katherine O'Neill traces the surprising spiritual lineage of doubt in Scripture and invites us to see our questions not as crises of faith, but as signs it's growing up.
Tonight, We Wrestle | Lori Ann Wood
When a sudden heart diagnosis pulled the rug out from under her, Lori Ann Wood found herself doing something she never expected: wrestling with God for a blessing, just like Jacob. An achingly honest reflection on chronic illness, fear, and the wounds that sometimes turn out to be gifts.
When in Doubt, Throw It Out! | Karen Robuck
Karen Robuck spent years trying to pray her doubts away before she discovered that the real work was more like cleaning out a refrigerator: you have to take everything out before you can throw anything away. A practical, honest look at what it means to bring your fears before God.
Also:
Thank God for Doubt
How Questions Deepen Your Walk with God.
By Katherine O'Neill
Long ago, when I was starting high school, my father said: “You’re going to encounter a lot of new ideas, some perhaps challenging, some seemingly at odds with your faith. Don’t worry. Don’t dismiss it. Just ask yourself the question, ‘Is it true?’ because if it’s true, then it comes from Jesus, who said ‘I am the Truth.’” It was perhaps the single most helpful piece of advice I’ve ever received.
Doubt is not a problem. If we’re honest, we can all probably point to things in the Bible that bother us. Maybe it’s angry, vengeful statements that don’t sound like a loving God, or weird stories that don’t seem to bring us any closer to Him. Or maybe there are specific doctrines in our faith that trouble us, ideas that we wrestle with: We are taught this, but I don’t know… God has no problem with this. It’s a sign that we are serious in our faith.
Drawing Near Through Doubt
After all, doubt has a noble pedigree. In Luke’s gospel, when the angel announces to Mary, a virgin, that she will have God’s child, she asks: “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34). In Genesis, when God promises Abraham that Sarah, then 90, will have a son, he just laughs—and nine months later, they name their newborn “Laughter,” because God has the last laugh on that one (Gen. 17). And we all remember Thomas, who demands proof of the resurrection and actually receives it: he touches Jesus’s wounds (John 20). These great people of faith experienced doubt, and God wasn’t angry about it. On the contrary: it brought them closer.
