Pastor James MacDonald once said: “Faith sees the opportunity; doubt sees the obstacles.”1 Pastor MacDonald also said when discussing doubt’s twin cousin worry: “When we worry, we are telling God, ‘You are neither trustworthy nor in control, so I need to worry and scheme as I take matters into my own hands.’ In this way unbelief drives worry, for it is impossible to worry when we are trusting in the provision of our sovereign God.”2
Faith trusts in the promises of God so much that it is able to drive doubt away even when a situation may seem bleak. Faith looks at God’s track record and confidently decides to wait on Jesus to fulfill His promises. When Moses sent out the twelve leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel to spy out the land of Canaan ten of the twelve spies looked at the obstacles, like the giants in the land, and forgot that God had promises to give them the land. Only Joshua and Caleb, trusted in the promise of victory and proclaimed that the obstacles were only stepping stones to bringing glory to the Lord. Faith, in summary, is an active confidence that tells God I believe that your promises are always true.
Doubt, on the other hand, is a lack of confidence in God, in His Word, and in His promises. Doubt walks by sight and tells God that He really isn’t in control of the situation. Doubt, like the ten negative spies, looks at the giants in the land, rather than the giant killer. Doubt, like faith, looks at the same promises of God, but tells God I don’t know if I can trust you, whereas faith believes that God will never break His promises. Doubt looks at a negative situation and basically tells God it’s hopeless, rather than view it as an opportunity for God to show His power and glory. In summary, doubt tells the omnipotent God of the universe that He is too weak to handle life’s difficult problems.
While fear of the unknown is one of the main reasons that doubt is able to often cause us to not trust God, I like what Pastor MacDonald says about fear: “While you can’t keep fear from visiting, you can slam the door in its face. With God’s promise in your hand, that’s exactly what you are able to do.”3
So, as Christians how do we defeat doubt. One of the key ways is to hide God’s Word in our hearts. And a second way is to understand the nature of faith.
(Psalm 119:11) says: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Basically, doubt and worry are twin sins that tell God He isn’t able to keep His promises. So, what can we do to stop doubting and believe? We can read the Bible and see that God specializes in getting us through the tough situations in life. In fact, He has a 100% success rate on delivering on His promises. As we read the Scriptures we need to hide these precious success stories in our hearts and call them to mind whenever doubts about our difficult situations come up. In short we need to stand on the promises of God and have faith in His power to deliver us from the trials of life.
A second way to build our faith in God is to understand that there is an element of waiting and perseverance that is a key way that God uses to build our faith in His promises. (1 Peter 1:6-7) tells us: “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” As a Christian are you willing to realize and accept that trials are necessary to build faith and that God uses them to give you the opportunity to bring Him glory!
I believe, since I know that God has my back, that the wisest thing I can do is to also give Him my whole heart. My friends God knows what you are going through and He will always provide a way through and a way to endure even our most difficult trials. I would like to close with one more quote from Pastor MacDonald that shows us that nothing takes God by surprise: “Trust means you anchor your heart in the reality of God’s awareness of your situation.”4
1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY JAMES MACDONALD (of 68) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
2 60 QUOTES BY JAMES MACDONALD [PAGE – 2] | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
3 60 QUOTES BY JAMES MACDONALD [PAGE – 2] | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
4 TOP 25 QUOTES BY JAMES MACDONALD (of 68) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
How many times have you heard it said, “We need more faith?” However, the Scriptures say it a little differently. We don’t need more faith, we need less doubt. Mustard seed faith can move mountains.