Overcoming Doubt
Numbers 13:25-33
Lord Halifax, the secretary of Great Britain, once shared a railway compartment with two prim looking spinsters. A few moments before reaching his destination, the train passed through a tunnel. In the utter darkness, he noisily kissed the back of his hand several times. When the train drew into the station, he rose, lifted his hat and in a gentlemanly way said, “May I thank whichever one of you ladies I am indebted to for the charming incident while we were in the tunnel.” He then made a hasty retreat, leaving the two ladies glaring at each other. Can you imagine their conversation after he left? “I didn’t kiss him, you must have kissed him!” While the other responded, “Well, I didn’t kiss him, you must have kissed him!” The point is this: it doesn’t take much for the seeds of doubt to be planted.
Doubt. It impacts all of us. Duke Professor and author Gary Habermaus writes, “Doubt…is certainly one of the most frequent and painful problems which plague Christians.” Leon McKenzie writes: "We come into the world with question marks in our heads . . . . (which) are never fully erased." We are not alone. Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection. Noah doubted he could build a boat. Moses doubted he could take on Pharaoh and free his people. Gideon doubted God’s call on his life and tested God not once but twice! Sarah doubted she could have children. And the list goes on and on.
There are four main causes of doubt. First is our circumstances. We see this in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Everything that took place on resurrection morning shows that Jesus’ followers did not expect him to be resurrected from the dead. Doubts and fears gripped them: the women were afraid and trembling. Mary Magdalene believes somebody has removed Jesus’ body. Peter went to empty tomb and wondered what happened. Mary thought Jesus was gardener and asked if he knew where they had taken Jesus’ body. The disciples didn’t believe Mary’s report. When Jesus appeared, the disciples were afraid and thought He was a ghost. Thomas didn’t believe the other disciples’ report. Sometimes our circumstances can be so overwhelming that it causes doubt to take root in our lives.
Second is other people. One of the biggest influences of doubt in our lives is when we get around doubt pushers, those who have the ability to discourage and pull themselves down as well as the others around them. We see this in our Scripture today, when a dozen spies went over to Israel, the very land that God had prepared to give them, to scout for the invasion. Ten came back and said they were not able to defeat the people while two said yes they could. Now these ten doubters experienced the same things as the other two spies did. They went to the same place, spent the same amount of time and had the same experiences and yet, they came away with radically different conclusions. Doubters turn the conversation from the positive to the negative. They have the capability that no matter how good something is they always find the negative. Do you know anybody like that? Some people seem to think their spiritual gift is to be critical, to be the devil’s advocate or to always find the problem in the midst of the opportunity. The doubter is always a glass half full person, even when it’s the will of God as it was for the Israelites taking possession of the land. To make their case, doubters exaggerate and instill fear in other people. The spies came back saying that all the men were of great size and were wild barbarians. Do you think every one of them were the size Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? Here’s what I’ve found about doubters: most of the time, they have a poor self image and struggle with self doubt and low self esteem. Like crabs in a bucket, they try to pull everyone else down around them.
Third is the comparison game. Comparing your abilities to others causes you to doubt your own abilities. Instead of looking to God, you start looking around at everybody else and what you begin to convince yourself of is that they have more talent, more abilities, more education, or more experience. The moment you start doing that, you're going to be filled with self-doubt. You can never win the comparison game because there’s always somebody smarter, more talented, more beautiful and more resourced than you. This is why the Bible says we should never play the comparison game. 2 Corinthians 10:12 says, “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” God doesn't want you comparing yourself to anybody else. He wants you to be unique. He wants you to be you.
Fourth is our past failures. Remembering your past failures is kind of like playing a movie in your mind of all your mistakes and playing it over and over. It tortures you to death, and you hate doing it. And it creates tapes that continually tell you you’re not enough. And the weight of remembering your past failures weighs you down and becomes a millstone which keeps you from moving forward. Rick Warren writes about the voices of doubt which he calls Dreambusters: “Dreambusters can be critics. They can be cynics. They can come from the culture around you. They can also be friends and family but the biggest DreamBuster can be you, the way you talk to yourself.” For some of you, the greatest challenge is to forgive yourself. You need to be reminded why Jesus died on the cross and that was to offer grace and forgiveness for our sins and past mistakes. It is to offer us redemption, new life and new beginnings. You’ve already been forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ but that grace and forgiveness cannot be realized in your life until you forgive yourself.
And here’s the impact: doubts limit your potential. Upon hearing this negative news from 10 spies, the people began to grumble and wished they could return to the wilderness. Did you hear that? They had spent 40 years in the wilderness leading up to this one moment: to enter the Promised Land. The had finally reached their destination but along the way they had defeated the greatest army in the world to escape, seen God provide water and food in the desert and experienced miracle after miracle. But the moment they hear the doubts of a few, they begin laying plans to return to the wilderness. As a result, they’re willing to walk away from their destiny and the purpose of God for their lives. Doubt holds us back from God’s hopes and dreams for our life.
Doubts are not incompatible with faith. In fact, they can add to our faith. Selwyne Hughes said, “Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ’s strongest disciples.” So how do you access the power of the resurrection and overcome your doubts? First, choose to live by faith. Faith and doubt are mutually exclusive. (Show a 2 litre bottle of water and corn oil) Faith and doubt cannot go together because doubt is just a lack of trust in God. We are called to faith. Bill Hybels writes, “Every single day, we make choices that show whether we are courageous or cowardly. We choose between the right thing and the convenient thing, sticking to a conviction or caving in for the sake of comfort, greed or approval. We choose either to take a carefully thought out risk or to crawl into a shrinking shell of safety, security and inactivity. We choose either to believe in God and trust Him, even when we do not always understand his ways, or to second guess him and cower in the corners of doubt and fear.” If you are a person filled with doubt or a negativity, you chose that. Your attitude and outlook are a choice. Too often we want to blame everything else in life for the way we think: our background, our childhood, our parents, our experiences or the people around us. The problem is it’s just an excuse. Choices not circumstances determine our faith and attitude. We choose to believe or doubt. That’s the choice the 12 spies had and 2 chose belief while 10 chose doubt. You can look at it as glass half full or half empty. But it’s a choice and it’s Your choice.
Second, be willing to take a stand. Most people doesn’t don’t know where they are going and as a result, most are going the wrong way. If you are ever going to make a difference, to reach your potential and help others reach theirs, you will have to take a stand. The hardest thing that Caleb ever did was quiet the people down and try to stop the flow of negativism, discouragement and doubt. You have to take a stand and make a statement of faith both with your words and your actions. It takes spiritual conviction and courage to do that, realizing that you may not be proven right for days, months or even years. But this you know: God is always faithful to those who step out in faith and fulfill His plan and will.
Third, change your narrative. Your narrative is the words you say to yourself. You talk to yourself all the time, some of it’s positive and some not. Too often we tell ourselves 'I'm no good', 'I can't do it', and 'it will never happen'. That’s doubt and fear speaking. Instead, talk to yourself out of God's vision, God's dream, God's destiny for your life. The truth is you can't be trusted to tell yourself the truth. And you can't trust what other people say either. The only voice you can trust all the time in any situation is the voice of God because only God knows the Truth and only God knows the future. I don't know what God's going to do in my life over the next 10 years, but I'm certain He is at work. So I live by trust, hope and faith God and I listen only to what has to say about me: you are a child of God in whom Christ dwells. Tim Harrison writes, “Once. Once upon a time. Used to. Past tense. I’ve heard a lot of dramatic conversion stories: folks who’ve killed others or been destitute, deep in drug addiction, radically changed by God in an instant. It happens. All the time. Praise God. For me, it wasn’t that dramatic….One day in a church service, I heard an old man’s story about what it meant to live in a community of followers of Jesus. I heard about the things that God hates and I was guilty of them all. I gave my life to Christ that day. I was changed but I wasn’t sure how or why. I didn’t long for the things I once did. I had a different mindset toward life and people. It wasn’t because I decided to be different, turned over a new leaf, or decided to follow a set of rules or guidelines. I was (just) different. Period. And then he quotes James Bryan Smith, ‘Being an apprentice of Jesus is not about rules and laws, it is about identity and place. (The) Christian life is not an if-then obligation (‘If I do this, then God will do that.’) It is a because-therefore opportunity (Because I am one in whom Christ dwells, therefore I will…”). The better way to encourage change is to remind people who they are now, in contrast to who they once were… we should say to ourselves, ‘I am a Christ-inhabited person. What does that look like in the world I live in?’… Simply put, I am called to live differently because I am not the person I once was… It is not a matter of salvation. It is a matter of being authentically who we are.’… I (now) know who I am and I know whose I am. Currently. Present tense. Now and forever.” I am a child of God in whom Christ dwells.
Fourth, focus on God’s blessings. In the midst of doubt, we need to be reminded who God is and what God has done for us in the past. Look back over how God has blessed you and worked in your life in the past. Remember God’s blessings. Write them down. Then review how God has worked in your life, what he has accomplished, how he has shown himself powerfully and has shown his faithfulness, no matter the circumstances you’re facing. That will always carry you through. Joshua 1:9 (LB) says, "Be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." If God tells you to banish doubt, then you have a choice. God’s blessings and faithfulness banish doubt from our minds and hearts. Today, start a habit of acknowledging a doubt, but then choosing not to believe it because you know our God is a loving God, a faithful God and a God who has blessed us immensely. He has been in the past and He will be in the days that lie ahead.
Fifth, claim God’s promises. Our God is not just a God of promises but a God of promises fulfilled. There is not a promise that God has made which has not been fulfilled or will not be fulfilled. So when you’re facing doubt, mediate on God’s promises and the less you’ll be overwhelmed by your present circumstances. Here are two of the promises God has made to you. “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” When you are in a season of doubt, feeling very alone, as though God is far away, as if He can’t hear you, as if He has left you to His own devices, know nothing could be further from the truth. Keep seeking. Keep knocking, keep asking and you will find him. And when you do, you will realize that He was there all the time.
One tribe of Native Americans had a unique practice for training young braves. On the night of the boy’s 13th birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then, he had never been away from the security of his tribe or family. But on this night, he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he discovered he was in the middle of the thick woods, by himself, all night long. Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he wondered what more sinister sound it masked. No doubt, it was a terrifying night for many. And in what seemed like an eternity, finally the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter amazement, he saw a figure standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was the boy’s father who had been there all night long right by his side, protecting him. Amen and Amen
