Growing Through Doubts

Doubt

Doubt… what a troubling topic:

To some, doubts are a sign of lack of faith, even ‘no faith.’

To others, doubts are a natural part of life.

Right now, what is your view?

For some, doubts end up being fatal to faith in God.

For others, doubts are mere weakness and an opportunity to grow.

From your experience, in your own life or viewing others from the outside, what would you say?

Behind doubts

Intellectual wrestling / morally wrong… good teaching

Love of sin… confession and repentance

Experience of pain… grief and lament

Poor view of self… gospel promise (love of God)

The Danger of doubt

Walking away from the faith, giving up.

Deconstruction…

“Deconstruction is the process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with. Sometimes the Christian will deconstruct all the way to atheism. Some remain there, but others experience a reconstruction. But the type of faith they end up embracing almost never resembles the Christianity they formerly knew.”

Doubt and/or deconstruction can be cool. There is a street cred to it, it’s fashionable… to question your beliefs, or the beliefs of your parents and leaders, and in the end reject them.

Since you are here, I assume you aren’t about to walk away from the faith… but honestly, in my experience, the doubts people carry with themselves even to mission, can lead to walking away. Why? Some with doubts try to manage, cover up, or even soothe their doubts by trying to be on the cutting edge, on the front line, on mission!

If that is you, please talk to someone.

To Gideon then…

Mostly +ve, mostly -ve, or not sure.

Being honest with myself, I think I have been mostly -ve to Gideon.

Why?

He tests God and he doesn’t immediately respond in faith!

Matthew 4:7 “7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’””

1 Corinthians 1:9 “9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

But in coming to understand us, our limitations, our weaknesses; understanding more of the grace and love of God, I need to temper that negative view.

Firstly, Gideon is portrayed as a new Moses. (Ex. 3.)

Like Moses, he received his call while he was in hiding from the enemy, doing menial work to keep his family alive (11).

Judges 6:11 NIV

11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

Like Moses, he was told that the Lord was sending him on a mission (14).

Judges 6:14 NIV

14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

He protested, as Moses did, that he was inadequate for the task (15).

Judges 6:15 NIV

15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

He received the same promise as Moses received, ‘I will be with you’ (16), and, like Moses, he received a sign to confirm his call (17).

Judges 6:16–17 NIV

16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” 17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.

Finally, miraculous fire signalled God’s presence (21), as it did in the call of Moses.

Judges 6:21 NIV

21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

So the message is clear: Gideon was to be used by God to save Israel from the Midianites, just as Moses was used to save Israel from the Egyptians. The God of the exodus has come to Israel’s rescue again. (Barry G. Webb, “Judges,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 271–272.)

Secondly, Gideon was not in a good place.

a) The Lord might address him as mighty warrior, but he is nothing of the sort.

Judges 6:11 “11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.”

Judges 6:2 “2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.”

Constantly on edge that the worst would happen. “Where is this God who loves us? Protects? Provides… God is using us to provide for the Midianites.”

Plenty of room for doubt.

He, like the rest of Israel was running on fear.

b) he, like the rest of Israel, did not understand or acknowledge their sin.

Judges 6:1 “1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”

Judges 6:7–10 “7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.””

They are crying out to God, but it is their own sin that brought them to his situation.

Doubts about God, his love, about the truth of it all, come when we are caught in sin.

Many people walk away from the faith claiming it is not for them. Only for it to come out later, they had an affair, or caught in some sexual sin, or they are hiding addiction to drugs, alcohol or porn.

People love sin, so they ‘doubt’ faith, question it and walk away.

When we are assessing our own doubts, we need to be honest, we need to drill down to the true source of our doubt.

Do you have doubts? What is the source of it?

Fear of others and their view of you

Love of Sin

Rationality or love of science above the word.

Carrying hurt

Thirdly, Gideon is just like us… weak.

Judges 6:36–40 NIV

36 Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Wanting reassurance was normal before big battles to seek the Lord one more time.

(1 Kings 22:6-28 Jehoshaphat and Micaiah)

“Do not be angry with me…” says Gidoe. He sees his own weakness, he knows this is not the right thing to do.

But God’s response is gracious… it is a gracious concession to his weak faith. It wasn’t an indication that God was pleased with him for seeking reassurance in this way.

Doing a Gideon is not necessary for us, but God in his mercy sometimes responds to such calls for reassurance.

We are weak.

God in his grace will bear us, he will carry us along, if only we would trust him through the dark times.

How did God help Gideon?

Gideon knew what God had done, he knew the history, he just needed it put into context to trust God. God reminded him of the promises he gave to Israel/Moses… ‘I will be with you.’ God gave him the assurance and the peace that he needed.

How will God help us?

We need to remember the gospel so that we will be assured!

Spurgeon (https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/spurgeon-for-doubting-christians/)

Struggled with assurance of God’s love…

“I must confess here, with sorrow, that I have seasons of despondency and depression of spirit, which I trust none of you are called to suffer, and at such times I have doubted my interest in Christ, my calling my election, my perseverance, my Savior’s blood, and my Father’s love.”

“I have told you before that, some years ago, I felt a great depression of spirit; I knew whom I had believed; but, somehow, I could not get the comfort out of the truth I preached. I even began to wonder whether I was really saved; and, having a holiday, and being away from home, I went to the Wesleyan Chapel, and a local preacher occupied the pulpit that morning. While he preached a sermon full of the gospel, the tears flowed from my eyes, and I was in such a perfect delirium of joy on hearing the gospel, which I so seldom have an opportunity of doing, that I said, “Oh, yes, there is spiritual life within me, for the gospel can touch my heart, and stir my soul.”

Do you have doubts?

What is the source of it?

Fear of others and their view of you… put to death your fixation on image

John 12:43 “43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.”

1 John 2:15 “15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”

1 Peter 5:6 “6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”

Love of Sin… confession and repentance.

Acts 26:18 “18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”

Rationality or intellectual doubts or truth is morally wrong.

2 Timothy 3:15–16 “15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,”

Carrying hurt… grief and lament, pour it out before the Lord for him to lift you up.

Lamentations 3:21–26 “21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”