Doubts

 Do you ever have doubts?  About God, I mean.  Do you ever wonder if He is really there or if He really cares?  Do you ever wonder if He really does have your best interests at heart?  I have been looking at two stories of doubt recently.  One ended well.  The other did not.  

Let's start with Eve.  In Genesis 3, Satan tempts Eve to dwell on her doubts to start her down a road to destruction.  He begins by asking her "did God really say . . ."  Here, he is opening the door to doubts.  How does Eve handle it?  She first defends God, but then she adds a twist to the command.  God told her not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17), but He didn't say she shouldn't touch it (Genesis 3:3).  Eve makes a classic error in judgement.  When trying to deal with the doubts presented to her, she tries to justify herself and talk herself into believing, all while feeding the doubts with more manmade commands.  We all know how this ends.  She gives in.  We all suffer.

Now let's look at John the Baptist.  John has worked hard preparing the way for the Messiah.  He has preached and baptized with zeal and conviction.  He has sacrificed and served, done everything God has asked of him.  Now, he is in prison.  In Luke 7, we see his doubts.  In verse 19, we are told, "Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?""  It's an honest question.  "Are You He, or am I just confused?"  Here is the big difference between Eve and John.  Eve tries to handle her doubts herself.  But what does John do?  He runs straight to the Lord.  He asks his question and gets an answer.  He is then encouraged and the doubts are laid to rest.  

So what do we do when we doubt?  Should we trust ourselves to handle the doubts, as Eve did?  No.  We should follow John's example and take them straight to the Lord.  Satan lies to us all the time.  It is the only language he speaks.  So when he is lying to us, feeding our doubts, we need to run to the Truth and listen with whole-hearted devotion.  You see, doubts are not sin anymore than temptation is.  The trouble comes when we feed those doubts, when we give in to them rather than running to the Lord.

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