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LIFE TEEN Presents "Spread the Word" |
Do you ever doubt God?
“The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” – Matthew 28:16-17
SITUATION EXPLAINED
Do you ever get upset with yourself for doubting God?
SOLUTION OFFERED
I once had a friend tell me that, “If Jesus would just work one miracle for all the world to see, like turning the entire sky red for an hour and speaking through clouds or something…” that THEN he would believe.
..doubt can motivate but it can also deflate... He went on to tell me that God’s biggest “problem” was that He “left people with too much doubt”, and that if He really wanted us to follow Him, “He should have given us more to go on”.
Interesting…
There were so many things I wanted to share with my buddy. How God HAD turned the sky, how He HAD spoken out of a cloud, how He HAD given signs…all sorts of events (chronicled throughout Scripture) that God used to communicate with the masses of people, yet some…many…most still would not believe.
I wanted to explain to Him that if we believed only because of miracles or believed because we had no other choice, or only out of fear…that it wouldn’t be love and it wouldn’t be faith. But he didn’t want to hear that, either.
The truth is that he equated doubting with having no faith. That’s a mistake. Those are not the same thing. God’s existence does not depend on what you or I believe or whether or not we believe in Him. Deep down he believed, too, that if he wasn’t sure about God, then God wouldn’t “be so sure” about him. That’s also a mistake. The depth of God’s mercy is not dependant on the depth of our understanding.
What my friend really needed was for someone to tell him that doubts are normal, they are human and…at times, they can even be healthy.
I’ve had doubts about God in my life. I’ve had doubts about God, today.
Doubt is human and it’s not something (necessarily) to get too down on ourselves for doing. The problem is when we doubt NOT because we “can’t understand” but because we “refuse to believe”. There’s a big difference there.
Doubts about God that fill our head because we can’t figure out why He does (or allows) the things that He does, are not the same as doubting God’s supremacy, power, wisdom or mercy.
I love this verse today from the Gospel of St. Matthew. These are among the last four verses in the entire book. Here’s Jesus taking the eleven remaining disciples up the side of the mountain. He’s been killed and has RISEN from the dead. He has appeared to them multiple times before their very eyes, worked MIRACLES in their presence and is not about to ASCEND into Heaven. And it says in verse seventeen that the Apostles, “worshiped but they DOUBTED.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I mean, c’mon…they STILL doubted after all that? Yes.
Didn’t they look Jesus in the eyes, see Him in the flesh? Yes.
Didn’t they hear His voice and see Him work in ways they could not explain? Yes.
Didn’t they believe He was God? Yes, they worshiped Him.
And they STILL doubted? Yep, you better believe it.
That fact gives me hope.
Even the apostles, even at this wonderful glorious moment of Christ’s ascension had doubts. Doubt can move us to pray. Doubt can move us to repent and ask for mercy. Doubt can move us to ask more questions, read more of the Word, share more testimony, change more behavior and become more humble before our God.
Doubt can also have a negative effect, justifying our sin…if we are too self-centered, proud, lazy or too stubborn to open our mind or heart.
Basically, doubt can motivate but it can also deflate. As the Apostles show us, however, doubt COUPLED with worship leads us to deeper levels of humility and honesty before our God, basking in the light of His mystery, majesty and mercy.
This day, acknowledge your doubts. Talk about them with God. Put them at His feet and then worship Him and you will have a new appreciation for the phrase “the BENEFIT of the DOUBT”.
SALVATION GIVEN
“The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” – Matthew 28:16-17
God is moving in your life right now…there is no doubt about it.
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| Affectionately known as the "Bible Geek ®”, Mark Hart serves as Executive Vice President for Life Teen International. A graduate from the University of Notre Dame, Mark is a popular speaker, award-winning author and weekly regular on Catholic radio programs.
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