Terri of diaryofaquadraplegic.com shared a post yesterday-God with Us. In her post she shared about her recent health struggles. We commented back and forth a little about doubt, which prompted my post today.
When we are weakened by a health struggle or a severe trial, we can tend to get down on ourselves for having doubt. It does not help when we hear things like doubt is the opposite of faith. As someone who has lived with chronic illness for thirty years and has had my own shares of struggles, I want to share a few reflections that I find encouraging.
When John the Baptist was in jail and knew he faced execution by King Herod for calling King Herod out on his sin, he sent word to Jesus. John wanted reassurance. He sent word to Jesus in Matthew 11:2-3:
And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
John was in a dire situation. He has was jail and knew he would soon die. He had doubt and wanted to be reassured. He had spent quite a bit of time calling people to repent to be ready for the kingdom. John identified Jesus as the Lamb of God and as the one whose sandals he was not fit to tie. John is the one who because of his testimony, some of his own disciples went to follow Jesus and yet in his dire situation John want reassurance.
How did Jesus respond? Did he rebuke John for doubt? Did he give a an empty cliche?
Jesus responded by giving John the proof that would strengthen John in his faith in Matthew 11:
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
When we struggle because of illness, a terrible trial, it is what we do with our doubt that matters not whether we have doubt. If we look to Jesus within our doubt, within our suffering, he responds as our Sympathetic High Priest just as he did for John the Baptist. Jesus knew the situation John was in and gave John what he needed. We do well to remember the words of Hebrews 4:14-16:
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
When we struggle, when we doubt, when we are overwhelmed, let us come to Jesus to receive grace and mercy in our time of need.
Thank you for reading. God Bless.
Jesusluvsall's Blog 
“It is what we do with our doubt that matters”. Yes! The enemy seeks to turn our honest questions into shame. But God knows our weaknesses and compensates for them in advance. Yours are great thoughts, brother! And they come from a guy who has been there, done that, and bought the tee shirt. 😃
If we come to Jesus with our doubts, it safeguards us from the enemy.
Amen, Matt.
Great points for biblical encouragement! It’s quite natural to doubt God’s love for us when we suffer or have bad things happen to us, especially when our prayers for healing or to resolve the situation go unanswered. I went through this myself and it was a dark time. The Lord is faithful, however, and eventually His Word answered those doubts and He brought me through that season.
The simplest and most powerful answer is, of course, the cross. That is where God’s love for us was most clearly demonstrated, but just as in our conversion, sometimes we need the Holy Spirit to reapply that truth to our own soul that we might see with eyes of faith and know that He died, even for us. We can be assured that He who died for us loves us with an unimaginable love and in spite of our sufferings He loves us still.
May your post and the biblical truth it contains be a blessing to the hearts of all who suffer such doubt.
God bless,
Craig
Preach it, brother Craig! Amen.
He has great points
The temporary sufferings of this life are nothing compared to the eternal joy we will have
Beautiful words of wisdom in such encouraging scriptures. Thank you.
Thank you Terri 🙂
I also dislike “doubt is the opposite of faith,” particularly since I often find them residing side by side because I’m not perfect. I think I’m going to tryin looking at if differently: Doubt is an opportunity to grow faith.
Amen- an opportunity to grow faith 🙂
Amen. Jesus is faithful to overlook our struggles and provide what we need. He knows we have weaknesses and that we’re not perfect. We can repent and start over, His mercies are new each day.
It is a great deal for us. We can’t do anything apart from him in serving him. He empowers us. He helps us grow. He shares his victory with us. and- he rewards us