My Foot Almost Slipped - Dealing With Doubt As A Child Of God

“My Foot Almost Slipped”

Dealing with the Temptation of Doubt as a Child of God

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

OPENING: - Today I want to deal with something that we all have either had to face or at some time will have to face and that is the temptation of doubt.

QUESTIONS:- Have you ever been to the point where you find yourself struggling not with right and wrong, not with rather democratic or republican, not with Pepsi or Coke, but struggling with what you have been taught and believe in your heart and what you are experiencing in your life. You do what the Bible says, you are faithful, you pay your tithes, you read your Bible, and you pray yet you find yourself struggling. You were so confident you heard from God. You knew without a shadow of doubt that he gave you direction, encouraging you to move forward. Everything you read in his word seems to confirm your plans. You prayed about it every step along the way, always giving glory to God and then suddenly it seems your plans literally blow up in your face.

You try to carry on as though everything is fine but down on the inside there is a war raging and you know that something is off a bit. The way things are going on in the world has you baffled. Black lives don’t seem to matter at all. Crime is justified based upon the color of a person skin. Tax evasion is rewarded to the rich, yet it seems you get 5 dollars and they constantly are trying to take 6 from you. Ungodliness is held to a high standard and righteousness is criticized and made to be a shame. Wrong is being called right and right is being called wrong. Then in the midst of it all you’ve noticed that your passion for God has started to dwindle, you are beginning to lose your desire to be in the Word and pray; you’ve become impatient, cynical, hard to live with, and you just don’t care much about the things of God. If you feel this way then this is for you – if you haven’t felt this way then this is for you because someday more than likely you will experience it and you need to know what is going on and how to handle it.

Understand this feeling doesn’t mean that you have lost your salvation, you are however; being tempted and you need to know how to fight against this temptation or else you will find yourself falling into a deep chasm threatened with a total loss of faith.

This temptation if not properly dealt with can lead to great sin although it is not so much a sin of the flesh, such as adultery, fornication, lust, homosexuality, drugs, or alcohol abuse. Neither is it a sin such as anger, covetousness, rebellion, unforgiveness, gossip or even pride. Yet if not properly dealt with it is capable of leading to every other sin listed here.

2020 has been a year unlike any other in recent history. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we operate with each other and how we deal with life in general. Death this year has literally seemed to be more staggering than normal. Over 200,000 people in the United States alone have died from this virus and the numbers are yet climbing. What we thought to be normal rather it was going out to eat or going to church has been changed. Racism and the blatant disregard for human decency seems no existent. We wonder within ourselves what is going on?

Sometimes we often wonder Why is it so hard to do right? The closer I try get to Jesus it seems like the more I suffer. You find yourself saying - my life has been so hard, so painful already. I've had all I can take, and I can’t take it anymore.

As a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as I have stated before my desire is to cause people to get to the heart of God. I want to be able to give people what God has given me with the wisdom and knowledge of God something that will help them make it through this temptation and seek the heart of God.

Prayer.

Scripture: Psalm 73:1-28

UNDERSTAND: - Doubts can be intellectual where we doubt that the Bible is really inspired by God or that Jesus really resurrected from the dead. Doubts can also be emotional. When a person has experienced great sorrow or disappointment like the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the betrayal of a spouse may cause a person to doubt the goodness, love, and care of God.