Category: DOUBT

LAND OF DOUBT

I experience an undercurrent of doubt whenever I face a new project. In my recurring nightmare I forget Who God is.

I’m preparing to lead two different classes. Under pressure, I have a recurring nightmare and wake up in a sweat. In the dream, my classroom is not stocked, the students are wildly out of control, and I have forgotten to bring any of my teaching materials. Even though God has repeatedly supplied over the years in countless high-pressure situations, I still experience an undercurrent of doubt whenever I face a new project. In my recurring nightmare in the Land of Doubt, I forget Who God is.

SPIRITUAL AMNESIA

In Mark 8:1-21, the Disciples also experienced spiritual amnesia. The clock is ticking, and the crucifixion is less than a year away. Jesus leads the 12 into the territory of their enemies: the Gentiles. The Gentile mother’s daughter is healed, and Jesus provides a miracle meal for over 4,000 Gentiles. The leftovers from feeding of the 5,000 were 12 small baskets, but the leftovers from the 4,000 are 7 large hampers. Jesus is preparing the Disciples for the Great Commission: to go outside of Judea and to the ends of the earth. Their faith must stretch, but the 12 often dwell in the shadow of the Land of Doubt.

DIFFERENT LEVELS OF FAITH

Mark’s record reveals different levels of faith. The Gentile woman shines. The Disciples’ faith appears jumbled, often responding in confusion. At the bottom of the pile are the Pharisees. They track Jesus down, choose to ignore all His past miracles, and demand an astral miracle. Remember the story of Pharaoh? God kept piling up the plagues and the miracles, and Pharaoh’s heart grew harder. The Pharisees’ hearts are rock hard. John MacArthur writes, “When confronted by the light, they ran deeper into the shrouded gloom of their self-righteous traditions.” Most of the Pharisees lived in total darkness, well beyond the land of doubt.

MUDDLED FAITH

Have you ever experienced confusion in your faith? Do you think that clarity relies on you and your own abilities rather than the God Who hung the stars in place? In the boat, the disciples sat with the One Who had just fed 4,000 Gentile men. However, “they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.” They are next to the One Who supplied manna for forty years to the Israelites, but their faith is muddled because of the state of their bellies. The last thing they had to worry about was food, yet doubt came to play.

Can you hear Jesus sigh? “He directed nine rapid questions to them. The first five reproved them for their obtuseness. The last four rebuked them for worrying about the supply of their needs as long as He was with them. Had He not fed 4,000 with 7 loaves, leaving 7 hampers full over? Yes, He had. Then why did they not understand that He was abundantly able to supply the needs of a handful of disciples in a boat? Didn’t they realize that the Creator and Sustainer of the universe was in the boat with them?” (Believer’s Bible Commentaryby William MacDonald).

WHO IS IN THE BOAT?

Thank God, the Sustainer of the universe is in the boat with me as I commence to teach my new classes. I work to prepare, but the ultimate conditions and results are all in His hands. Continually, I ask God to remind me Who He is and all the paths He has led me through.

Do you remember Who God is when you face your worst nightmare? Remember, He is in the boat with you. God never turns down the prayer of one who honestly prays, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

WHEN NOTHING GOES RIGHT

Is your life not working out the way you expected?

Moses went back to God and said, “My Master, why are you treating this people so badly? And why did you ever send me? From the moment I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, things have only gotten worse for this people. And rescue? Does this look like rescue to you?” (from The Message paraphrase) Can you hear the frustration in Moses’ voice? He never asked for this job, didn’t want this job, obediently begins this job, and there you have it: failure! At least, Moses thought it was failure. What was going on with this God he had decided to trust?

FROM BAD TO WORSE

As Moses follows God’s directions, in Exodus 5:1-22, Pharaoh makes it exponentially worse for the Israelites. The Israelites move from a dire situation to a worse one. Their quotas for brick making are doubled and now they must find their own straw to make the bricks. No wonder the people blamed Moses for their pain.

PHAROAH’S MIND GAMES

Observe Pharoah’s purpose in creating this impossible situation. “Let labor be heavier on the men and let them work [hard] at it so that they will pay no attention to [their God’s] lying words.” (AMP Version) This is spiritual warfare at its worst. Warfare against their hearts, their relationship to God, and their obedience to the words of Moses. Eighty-year-old Moses is at the end of his rope.

THE UNEXPECTED

I love the saying, “Everything will work out, just not the way you expect.” Moses expected immediate blue skies and parades, but God usually does not work that way. The God of the Universe fulfills His purpose; however the parade route is quite different than Moses’ expectations.

Is your life not working out the way you expected, even though you faithfully try to be obedient and follow God’s promptings? I have personal experience with this. God once led us to minister at a church. We were voted in by 100% of the congregation and naively assumed it would be smooth sailing. Nothing went to plan. That ministry shattered our hearts, fractured my husband’s health, disintegrated our plans for the future and evaporated our finances. Were we in the will of God? Yes!!!!! 

COMING OUT AT THE OTHER END

It took quite a few years to heal from the experience, but we came out with gold! For example, that experience developed me as a writer and life coach. We learned to know and trust God at a much deeper level. All those things we depended on before (our ministry experience, education, and relationships with people) went up in dust. God was and is faithful, not just in the way we expected. He is far better than we ever anticipate, even when the pain is excruciating.

Take heart in the words of Paul: Be strong in the Lord [draw your strength from Him and be empowered through your union with Him] and in the power of His [boundless] might. Put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily armed soldier], so that you may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Like Moses, keep putting one foot in front of the other. Consistently obey God and trust Him, even when the forces of the night threaten to devour you. When nothing goes right, God is faithful!

WHAT TO DO IN A SEASON OF DOUBT

Like the Israelites, have you forgotten Who you believe?

What bestseller begins with: “And these are the names of”? Exodus chapter one does not seek to be on the Times Bestseller list. The author reminds us this is the saga of the family chosen to play a crucial role in God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. God takes childless, elderly Abraham and Sarah and makes them the ancestors of a family which ends up numbering in the millions. Abraham and Sarah trust God even when they could not see the future.

THE PERFECT PETRI DISH

In His plans, God often relocates people. If the twelve brothers from Genesis had remained in pagan Canaan, good chance that they would have intermarried with the Canaanites. That would have been the spiritual end of God’s chosen people. By God’s grace, He relocates them via famine and Joseph to Egypt. God then takes advantage of Egypt’s racial bias. David Guzik notes: “Egypt had such an entrenched system of racial separation that Israel could grow there over several centuries without being assimilated.” This made the perfect petri dish for growing God’s people numerically, to the great alarm of the new Pharoah in Exodus 1.

THE PROMISE

Centuries before, God told Abraham: “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions (Genesis 15:13-14) It appears that while living 400 years in Egypt many of Abraham’s descendants forgot God’s promise. The Egyptian Pharoah certainly did not know or believe the promise.

GOD CIRCUMVENTS PHARAOH

Pharaoh did not know The Promise keeper. So agitated at the population growth of the Hebrews, he tells the Hebrew midwives to kill the newborn boys. The midwives do not cooperate. Pharaoh makes a far more radical command. All male babies be murdered by drowning in the river. His plan would effectively eliminate the Hebrews within one generation. The miracle is that the method Pharaoh commanded for the death of the male babies of Israel becomes the divine provision for saving the deliverer of Israel: Moses. God, the Promise Keeper, circumvents Pharoah’s plans for evil and ends up rescuing millions of Jewish people.

THE REAL BATTLE

The real battle in Exodus includes God in the equation. That changes everything. Pharaoh didn’t understand Who he was fighting. Many of the Jewish people did not realize Who Pharaoh was dealing with. Do you know this God of the Universe Who loves you?

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHO YOU BELIEVE?

Like the Israelites, have you forgotten Who you believe? The beginning of Exodus may seem smooth sailing. “We think, ‘Oh, boy! It’s going to get really bad, and they’re going to have to make bricks without straw, but that’s just setting it up for when God’s going to come. It’s going to be so sweet when he gets them out!’ The Hebrews didn’t know that. They lived as slaves for 400 years. That’s a long time to keep believing the promises.” (Kevin DeYoung)

TRY THIS LITTLE EXERCISE

Do you feel like the slaves of Egypt? How about trying one little exercise. Begin this season of doubt by daily working on memorizing and believing the words of Psalm 121:1-8. I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Verified by MonsterInsights