What Do You Know?: Part 2 (No Doubt)

As Christians, we have been given a simple choice: we either believe God as He has revealed Himself in His Word…or we don’t.

We either place our confidence in His promises…or we rely on our circumstances to tell us what is true.

We either trust that He is in full control and seated firmly on His throne…or we anxiously look all around us  and allow ourselves to be swallowed by panic and fear.

At the end of the day, we either listen to the Enemy of our souls (Satan)…or we listen to the Lover of our souls (Jesus). We choose who will have the prominent voice.

If we choose doubt, we will never reach our full potential…and we will not please  the God who went to the grave and beyond to rescue us from our hopeless condition.

Jesus is ultimately the Author of our stories…but it is up to us to submit to His pen.

He is an amazing Storyteller (after all, all of history is His Story). He has a part for you in mind that only you can play. He will marvelously fill in the blanks for each of our individual lives, but the Bible does  give a broad character sketch of what a Christ follower should be:

*courageous

*bold

*gifted

*joyful, even in the face of suffering

*thankful

*fearless

*filled with peace

*full of godly wisdom

*defined by supernatural love for everyone

Does that list describe you? If so, you have chosen to believe that those things are true, regardless of whether or not you feel like they are.

In response to His disciple Thomas, who refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, Jesus appeared to Him and said the following:

“…reach out your finger here and see My hands; and put out your hand and place it on My side. Do not be faithless and incredulous, but stop your unbelief and believe!“–John 20:27 (Amplified)

The original word for ‘faithless’ in the opening verse is apistos and it means: “unbelieving, not to be trusted, without trust in God.”

The original word for believe in this verse is pistos and it means: “faithful, one who trusts God’s promises, one who is convinced that Jesus has been raised from the dead, one who has become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and Author of salvation.”

Based on this, imagine Jesus saying to you, “(Insert your name), do you realize that when you doubt My Word in any way, you are in essence saying that I cannot be trusted?  I AM Truth. I cannot lie. I am always and eternally faithful to you and I desire your faithfulness to Me in return. You are faithful to Me when you believe what I say.  I am your Savior. I can only do good to you. From this moment forward, stop doubting and believe.” 

There is coming a day when faith will become sight and we will come face-to-face with Jesus.

When that moment comes, I guarantee that we will want to know that we used this brief time on earth to believe Him.

We are all human and we will all feel doubt. The real issue is what we do with our doubt. Do we let our doubt cloud our vision and drag us down into despair? Or…do we take our doubts straight to Jesus and tell Him all about them? Do we then we go to His Word and focus on verses that speak to God’s absolute rule and reign and truth?

Do we choose to hear the voice of Jesus say to us: “Stop doubting and believe!” 

So, start today. Start small. Pick one promise from Scripture that applies to your situation and decided that you are going to believe it, regardless of what you can currently see. Ask Him to give you the strength to do it, especially when the going gets hard. He will honor your desire.

I have found that to be true in my life. I have stopped allowing circumstances to dictate how I feel, how I behave, and what I believe.  I have countered my doubts with the eternal truth of God’s Word and in return, He has given me His peace. It has made all the difference.

Let this be the day that you fully begin to live the story that He is writing for you.