But what about my doubts?

Faith in a world full of questions

It’s easy to know what you believe when everything is going well. When the sky is blue, and your pantry is full, and you have a job to go to tomorrow.

But then there are the dark days of doubt. When what you believed you understood last week, you’re not sure about this week. When one thing after another goes wrong. When it’s hard just to get up every morning. What about then?

The answers don’t always come easily, and they aren’t always easy to accept. But if you are a Christian, if you believe that there is a God whose truth is universal and unequivocal, then the answers are there, within your grasp.

And if you’re wondering if there is truth you can always rely on; if you’re wondering if there’s something better, something bigger than yourself, you need to ask yourself one thing: What do I know to be true?

Truth is, there is a God. He is the one true God, the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth. Truth is, He holds the answers to every deep, philosophical, existential question ever pondered. Whether you believe Him or not, this is the truth.

Now, for those dark days. Because He is the author of life, nothing in this world surprises Him.

God knows your doubts, and where they come from. And He wants you to rehearse to yourself those truths that comprise the Gospel. (If you’re not a Christian, hang on–you might just find what you’ve been missing!)

Here they are: Sin exists. It’s real. And each of us struggles with sin every day. Sin misses the mark of what God requires. And there is a consequence of sin: eternal death, for which there is no release, no hope of a do-over.

BUT.

But there is one person who never sinned, who walked this earth, and who defeated the evil in this world. And because He never sinned, because He preached good news that had been promised from the beginning of time, his enemies put Him to death. That man is Jesus.

And that man who died, who was buried, He rose to life again, conquering death. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father.

What does that have to do with you? That essential truth is everything. Hang on to that truth, because it means eternal life to you. It means that though you die, you will be raised again to live eternally with Jesus in heaven.

And here’s that BUT: But what if I don’t feel it? What about the terrible things that are going on in my life? What about the worries I have, that are very real, that don’t seem to go away? What about that deep hole I dug for myself, that I just can’t seem to climb out of?

God has the answer:

BUT GOD.

Here’s what He says in His Word, the Bible, in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

If you’ve already believed that, hang on to it. It’s the one truth that never dies. Believe that God sees what you’re going through, sees the doubts that you have, sees the darkness threatening to overtake you. What’s more, He doesn’t tell you to hang on for dear life because you might slip and fall.

Instead, He tells you this: “I give them [my own–my sheep, He calls us] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). His sheep are precious to Him, and He guarantees that once they believe, they will never get left behind.

But what if I don’t feel it? But what if I have too many terrible things in my past? But…?

But God.