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Thoughts for a Woman's Heart |
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encouragement in things that matter |
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Faith and Doubt
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Faith is a choice. It is a gift from God, but nonetheless, from our human perspective, it is simply a choice. Life is full of choices from ice cream flavors to life partners, but our choices for faith are the most important and most impacting choices we will ever make. Choices are considered cognitively and then acted on by the will. Faith is a choice – an act of my will. That’s "good" because feelings and emotions are not necessary, but it’s "bad" because we often judge our faith, or lack of it, by the feelings or emotions of any given season or moment. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. In other words, faith believes what it cannot prove. The conviction that faith produces is sometimes great and sometimes little, but God’s response is not dependent on a predetermined level of conviction. In Matthew 8, Jesus commends the great faith of the centurion and responds to his need, but He also responds to the little faith of the disciples and meets their need. In our aspiring to be women of great faith, the word "doubt" becomes an ugly word. It’s a "no-no," but we still do it. It seems totally contrary to faith because we can doubt God’s capabilities, His presence, His knowledge, or even the fact of His existence. We hit the rough spots of life and we wonder if He really loves us or cares about what is happening. We sin, and we question our forgiveness. Saying, "I should not doubt," accomplishes nothing. Rather, I need to let my doubt make a connection with the perhaps "little" faith that I do have. Doubt then becomes an opportunity to choose faith, regardless of my feelings. It becomes an opportunity to draw close to God in dependence and prove His promises by counting on them. Doubt allows me to learn truth on a deeply personal level – to claim the truth I struggle with as my very own. Doubt creates opportunities to pray, to learn the priority of facts over feelings, and to fight a spiritual battle and win. Doubt cannot win unless we give in to it, and quit. Faith and doubt are really both choices. We can choose faith or we can choose to stay in our doubt. Facing our doubts honestly before God and with God, will bring us to faith. And I will remind you that facing our doubts is a process, just like the rest of our Christian growth, and it may be a process that repeats itself. Daughter of God, just don’t quit. |
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— Bev |
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