Shadow of a Doubt: Can Your Faith Survive It?

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Faith, Doubt, Leaving the Faith

A few years ago, I followed a well-known Christian influencer whose faith journey was encouraging many, including me. But recently, he announced he was stepping away from Christianity, citing years of wrestling with doubts about the fundamentals of the faith. He said his doubt was too overwhelming to maintain his Christian life.

Hearing this was both difficult and confusing. I don’t know his heart or what God is doing in this man’s life, but I pray for him and trust him to the Lord’s care.

His story made me pause and ask: Is he the only one? How many of us have quietly struggled with similar doubts? How much doubt can we carry before it becomes paralyzing or makes us question where we stand with God?

Today, we’ll ask: What does it mean to doubt as a believer? How does God respond to our questions? Is there space for some doubt that isn’t disruptive? And, ultimately, how do we move forward—growing in confidence and resembling Him more, even when we’re not sure we have all the answers?

Our goal is NOT to spread doubts and “infect” others, so to speak. However, we can acknowledge them without giving them too much power.

• What type of doubts have you experienced? 
  • Doubting the existence of God
  • Struggling with doubts during challenges in life (wondering if there’s a point in all of this – seeing God’s hand)

I hope our listeners know that they are not the only ones who may struggle with similar questions and wonder: how much doubt should I be having?

We encourage you to keep reading, praying, and talking with the Lord about your doubts. Then, speak with mature Christians who have navigated these challenges.

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UNEDITED TRANSCRIPTION:

00:00:00 Patricia: Welcome to another Patterns of Truth podcast. A few years ago, I followed a well-known Christian Christian influencer whose faith journey was encouraging many, including me. But recently he announced that he was stepping away from Christianity, citing years of wrestling with doubts about the fundamentals of the faith. He said his doubt was too overwhelming to maintain his Christian life. Hearing this was both difficult and confusing. I don’t know his heart or what God is doing in this man’s life, but I pray for him and I trust in the Lord’s care. But his story made me pause and ask, is he the only one? How many of us have quietly struggled with similar doubts? How much doubt can we carry before it becomes paralyzing or makes us question where we stand with God? I’m Patricia, your host for today’s Patterns of Truth podcast. And today we will ask the question, what does it mean to doubt as a believer? How does God respond to our questions and our doubts? And is there space for some doubt that isn’t disruptive? Ultimately, how do we move forward, growing in confidence and resembling the Lord even more, even when we do not have all the answers? Our goal for today’s podcast and conversation is not to spread doubt and infect others with disbelief, so to speak, but we want to acknowledge that we all experience doubt from time to time without giving that doubt too much power. So hey everyone, we have Peter, Roy, and Bethel. How are you guys doing today?

00:01:31 Bethel: Good. How’s it going? Oh.

00:01:34 Patricia: Good. All right. So I want to launch right into our first question. Um and it doesn’t matter who answers, but what type of doubts have you experienced in your Christian life?

00:01:51 Bethel: I think even in my limited amount of life, as I go through different seasons, different phases, there’s always some point that I’m kind of like, Is God who he says he is in terms of, is God as good as he says he is? Is God um, always with me as he says he is? Which I mean, an utmost respect. I don’t mean that in any irreverent way, but I think that that’s normal, that we all kind of go through a point where we’re like, um, God, really with me. Is God really carrying me? Is God really sticking with me?

00:02:26 Patricia: MM. Yeah. Anybody else? What type of doubts have you experienced?

00:02:32 Peter: Like many of us who are new believers, I, uh, at the beginning of my salvation, uh, did doubt being saved. I remember praying multiple times. Um, and every time there was a salvation message, I was always worried, oh, no, if there’s another message. Um, until I reached a point where I prayed, Lord, you know, I don’t know what’s going on. And, um, I remember that I saw a difference in my life. And, uh, that was a shooting to me that, you know, the Lord worked in my heart. People didn’t know. They didn’t see the difference. But I knew the difference. I know that I started, you know, desiring to read scripture more. Um, my attitude towards life changed. Um, when I was I mean, still like a young, maybe thirteen years old. So that’s one of the doubts, um, that I had. Um.

00:03:39 Patricia: Okay. Right.

00:03:42 Roy: I, um, no doubt it’s been a long time. Uh, I’m the old guy on the podcast and I, uh, I don’t remember having doubts like Peter described, but I’m almost certain that I must have, uh, they’re long gone out of my memory, in any case, but, uh, for sure, uh, doubts about, um, details of life. Should I go this road or that road? Uh, what does this scripture mean? Why does, uh, somebody who’s wiser than I am think it means something different than I? Different than I believe it. So those are the kind of doubts that I’ve had mostly. Okay. Uh, and there’s been specific incidences when I’ve had to do something that had no knowledge that it would be the right thing or the wrong thing, but a decision had to be made. And it turns out, uh, years later, it was obvious that, um, that that was the right thing to do. So I think that’s an interesting experience. And I have to say, I was encouraged by a book, uh, by Elsie Cole. And I don’t remember the title of it right at the moment. Um, I’m, this is off the top of my head right now, but she was a missionary to China for many years and expressed the same sort of experience. So I was encouraged by that. Uh, we, we have to sometimes go ahead in our practical life, uh, on faith, uh, believing God is good and that he’s going to make everything work out and not worry about whether I’m doing exactly the right thing or not. Uh, because he’s sovereign and he’s good. And I think those two principles really have to guide us. Yeah.

00:05:39 Patricia: So I want to back up a little bit. Can we define doubt? What is it? Because I think we’re talking about like how it’s functioned in our lives. But, um, what actually is doubt?

00:05:56 Peter: I mean, my simple thought process, uh, um, like in simplicity, I would think is what I believe in is true or not.

00:06:06 Patricia: Mhm.

00:06:07 Peter: Um, what I feel confident about what I put my faith in. Is that true? Or is that just, uh, you know, Another imaginary thing or something that I, I made up.

00:06:24 Patricia: Oh yeah. It’s like a competing idea in your mind. Like, maybe I’m wrong about this whole thing. Yeah. So then thinking along those lines, can we have a little clarity? Are doubts a sign of weak faith, or can they be part of a normal Christian journey?

00:06:49 Bethel: I think we have to doubt at some point everybody’s gonna doubt. I think what differs is maybe what you will have doubts about. But I think that it’s normal that if you care about anything, you are inquisitive about it and you want to see it and you want to experience it. And so to doubt something means that you’re, I believe, spending time in it and that you are invested in it. So I think the same for your faith. If you want to see God’s hand. And maybe sometimes you don’t see it in the way you want to see it. You might doubt if you want to be saved. And so you hear a gospel message and you doubt. Each time it’s because you want. You want to be saved. You want to be sure that you’ve done it right. So I think that that can definitely be normal. Oh.

00:07:38 Roy: Doubt can be the means by which we expand our understanding. Um, I think I, I’m struck by what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians thirteen, verse twelve, I think, where we see through a dim window and I think it’s part of our human experience. Um, our limitations. And thankfully that’s going to be done away. Uh, in the new, uh, the new era, the new creation. Um, when we fully realize, um, two things. Uh, I think that’s in the same passage actually. First Corinthians thirteen that, which is, uh, partial will be put away. So, um, doubt prompts us to investigate. It should now it can be debilitating. And that’s where it becomes bad and a real hindrance when we come maybe obsessed with our doubt, but that that actually is a result of not really believing God is good. Because if we really believe that he’s good. Um, and I think scripture from page one enforces that on us. Um, even if we go back to the Garden of Eden and I think so much depends on the Garden of Eden or as revealed there, what happened? Uh, our first parents failed miserably and it was catastrophic. The, the failure. It’s affected every human being that’s ever lived. And yet what has come out of that? Um. The Lord, speaking to his disciples in John twelve said, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Well, that is such a profound verse, and it explains why God allowed the fall and what he’s done about it. We could not really be inheritors with Christ if Christ had not come into this life to save us. As a man, he is now risen man and we’re going to be like him. All of that’s made possible by the fall. If you think about it. So here are the most catastrophic failure result in the most catastrophic injustice that the world has ever seen, which resulted in the most incredible blessing that eternity will require us to investigate. So when you think about that pattern, then the only way we can explain it, I think, is by realizing that God is good and that he nothing is going to get slipped through his fingers, as it were. So we can be complacent in our relationship with him. He’s going to take care of us. And that includes, like in Hebrews tells us about the discipline. You know, he will discipline us if need be, but what’s the result of that? It’s going to be so that we learn righteousness and we improve. And so when you when you realize that, then doubts cannot be debilitating. They have to be simply a doorway to understanding more about what God has for us. Well.

00:11:14 Patricia: I appreciate how you mentioned, um, our for parents because I think that, um, for anyone who’s struggling with doubt, maybe they think that they’re the only ones, but there are many doubters that are featured in the Bible with a variety of solutions. And so, um, you mentioned, um, Adam and Eve. So, uh, I’ll just go down the list, right. And we can talk about what each doubt was about and how the doubts were resolved, or if that individual was overwhelmed by doubt. So we’ve got Abraham, Sarah, Barak, Gideon, Jonah, and we’ve got Thomas in the New Testament. So I want to take a crack at it. What was the doubt about and how was it resolved? Anybody?

00:12:05 Roy: Eve doubted the goodness of God. If anything, that’s got to be the fundamental doubt. Oh, she was in a. Are they? I should say, you know, we pick on Eve. But they were both there. Adam and Eve. Um, Adam could have intervened, but he didn’t. Um but. They were surrounded by every possible evidence of the goodness of God. And there was one requirement and basically said Satan came to them and said, okay, this thing that God has kept from you, that’s evidence that he’s not really good. MM. That was really the bottom, I think the bottom line. Temptation. Mhm. And they, they fell for it.

00:12:59 Patricia: Yeah.

00:12:59 Roy: So it was the goodness of God manifested. And they were tricked into doubting God’s goodness.

00:13:09 Patricia: Especially the part of. Well, you will be as gods, right? So then there’s this idea of, oh, he’s withholding something from me. I can be elevated. What is this? Right. The doubt of God’s goodness, but also something about the self. There’s something right. Why can’t be greater than what I am. Why not? Right. Yeah. Well, that’s a really good one. So I guess, well, considering all your comments before like that doubt was not necessarily resolved because we are all where we are right now. Um, it wasn’t.

00:13:41 Bethel: But it had to happen. It had to happen for God’s goodness, God’s ultimate goodness and ultimate grace with us to be presented. So ultimately, and I think that that’s the, what we can learn about all of these examples in the Old Testament is that no matter what doubt they had, God’s will was what it was in the end, and God was who he said he was in the end. And so I think that that’s something beautiful. Like our next example was Abraham. And Abraham doubted God’s promise, and he tried to go about things in his way that he saw fit. But where did he end up? Yes, he made a big mistake with Hagar in Egypt as well with Sarah. But ultimately God’s will came to be what he promised. And, you know, we have Isaac and we have the this blessing. And so sometimes it’s a matter of, yes, we will make the mistakes that we will make. We will doubt even a New Testament example. The disciples were with the Lord in the boat, and they doubted. They feared they panicked. But ultimately, God is going to be who he says he’s going to be. He’s going to do his will. He’s going to carry us through whether we see it or we don’t. Oh.

00:14:56 Patricia: I love that. The question then it kind of goes right back to the same thing Roy was saying. The disciples in the boat, they said, Lord, do you not care that we are about to die? Right.

00:15:07 Speaker 6: And still he was right there with them.

00:15:09 Patricia: Right. The like, don’t you know? Right. Because for us, right. The biggest fear and threat is death, right? We all want to survive death no matter what. And it’s like, well, don’t you see? This is what’s the end is going to be. Um, but he does see. So so you got Sarah Barak Gideon, Jonah Thomas. What was the doubt about? How was it resolved?

00:15:39 Peter: Well, we’ll talk about Abraham and Sarah, right. That, uh, um, they Abraham doubted that God is going to fulfill his promise of having a child under. There was a consequences of that. Oh, there was another child instead of Isaac, Ishmael. And that caused heartache, you know, and, and his life and, you know, in the future too. Um, because he didn’t trust the Lord. And, you know, honestly, if we think about it, we would be in the same place. Uh, imagine being old and not having a child and still trying to trust that the Lord promise will be fulfilled. Uh, I.

00:16:28 Speaker 6: Would have left, too.

00:16:32 Peter: Yeah.

00:16:33 Patricia: And hers was like a very much about the boys.

00:16:35 Peter: Yeah. And he knows exactly what he’s doing, you know?

00:16:38 Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:16:40 Patricia: Yeah. And her particular doubt. I’m trying to find it in Genesis was about the limitations of her body. Right in age. Right. And like, how can a dead womb bring forth like, what is this? Like, this is not possible. Right. I know how old I am, right? That’s what she was saying. Um. All right. Uh, Barrett. Gideon. Jonah. Thomas.

00:17:06 Bethel: Can I just add one more thing to the Abraham and Sarah conversation? The good, the beautiful thing is that we don’t just see it in Genesis, but we see it in Hebrews as well. Mhm. That’s that’s the point, I think, because it doesn’t. Go ahead, brother Roy and Galatians.

00:17:25 Roy: Galatians is a very important lesson.

00:17:28 Bethel: Yes. But that it wasn’t just. Yes. They doubted, yes, that that was what happened. But at the end of the day, God was faithful. God was faithful. And even though they doubted, they they still went about it and they still followed the will of the Lord. And in in Hebrews eleven, Sarah has described, uh, in verse eleven, actually, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed. She bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him. Capital H judged God faithful who had promised. And so it’s that’s the end of their story. And that’s the beautiful part.

00:18:09 Patricia: Yeah, I love that part. She counted him faithful, who had promised. Right. And it wasn’t. He was faithful. Right. The conclusion. Yeah. Not like well, I, you know, I had some really good herbs and I just changed my diet. And then I figured it out. It was. He was faithful.

00:18:26 Bethel: He was faithful.

00:18:27 Patricia: And gave her the power to conceive. Yeah. Peter, I know you had Gideon before. Oh, sorry.

00:18:35 Bethel: Yeah. Give us. Give us some Gideon. Peter.

00:18:39 Peter: Uh, uh, uh, when we were just, uh, planning for the recording, just before we started recording, I. I told the group that how much I love the story of Gideon.

00:18:50 Patricia: Mhm.

00:18:51 Peter: Um, we know typically of the first doubt that he had, which is doubting himself if he’s able to go and fight for the Lord. The enemies and the Lord showed miracle. You know a couple miracles for him to reassure him, but he also doubted afterwards also. Oh, um, if he’s going to win. After they sifted the army to three hundred people, three hundred men, um, and he was not sure. And the Lord answered his doubt too. So, um, doubt will continue to happen. And if we take it to the Lord, um, um, a mighty man like Gideon had multiple doubts and the Lord used him and he can use us also.

00:19:47 Patricia: So kind of going off of that then, Peter, what’s the, what’s the biblical pattern for a dressing down. So we know doubters in the Bible existed, right? This is a human condition, right? We see it in ourselves. We see it there. So what’s the biblical pattern for addressing this type of doubt?

00:20:06 Peter: Well, I’ll start by saying we have to be honest to the Lord. Come to him with Lord, you know, and this is what’s going on.

00:20:18 Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.

00:20:20 Bethel: And isn’t that what he wants? Because I don’t think like we’ve already acknowledged doubt is not necessarily a bad thing. And so doesn’t he want us to come to him with our questions and with our curiosities and with our struggles?

00:20:31 Speaker 7: Mhm.

00:20:31 Bethel: That’s how that’s how I felt that as has shown up in my life. Like sometimes it will literally take me going through something to continuously tell myself. But I know God is good, but I know God will come through. But I know God is who he says he is until I believe it.

00:20:49 Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah.

00:20:50 Bethel: And I, I think we see that in Scripture that we’ve mentioned.

00:20:54 Patricia: It makes me think of the Scripture. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. And sometimes we think of cares as which they can be like the issues of this life. Lord, I don’t know how I’m going to get through this financial problem or Lord, I’ve been praying for something for a long time. But what if someone’s care that constantly is on their heart is Lord, I’m just not sure about this. Fill in the blank, right? Whatever he’s asking someone to do or something to believe. Lord, that’s a care. It’s weighing you down, right? Roll off that care onto him like, Lord, I don’t know what it is. This unbelief is just overwhelming me. Help me. Right. I think that is a it is a care that can affect us, right? Big time depending on what is going on in life. Um, but yeah, so. Roy. Peter oh, sorry, Roy because Peter already answered a biblical pattern for addressing doubt.

00:21:53 Roy: Well, like Peter said, we we first of all have to be honest. And I like the story of the man who brought his paralytic. His paralytic son to, um. To the Lord. Uh, for, um, for help. Uh, he was a a demon, actually a demon possessed boy. Um, who, um, I suppose in modern language, it’d be like an epileptic fit, but, uh, it was demonic. Uh, it wasn’t just epilepsy, but he, um, appealed to the Lord. And, um, the Lord said, um. Um. Uh, Jesus said to him, yeah, I’m looking at the verse. He said to him, if thou couldst believe all things are possible to him that believes. And immediately the father of the young child, crying out, said with tears, I believe, help my unbelief. So, um.

00:23:12 Patricia: Or is that.

00:23:12 Speaker 7: Roy?

00:23:13 Roy: Uh, that’s uh, Mark nine twenty four, the verse I read. Okay. Um, and I think it’s important to realize that God, again, is a good God and he’s going to, um, not base his mercy on the weakness of our faith, but he’s going to take what it is.

00:23:36 Speaker 7: Uh. Huh. Yeah.

00:23:38 Roy: So, um, so the point is to come to the Lord with our difficulties and trust him to guide us. And he will.

00:23:49 Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:23:51 Peter: But to what Roy is saying, we don’t base our future and our confidence on our feelings or our emotions, but on or the circumstances. But on truth and truth comes from Scripture. So regardless of how we feel or what we’re going through, we have to go back to the truth and scripture.

00:24:16 Speaker 7: Yeah. Mhm. That’s very good. Um, I know.

00:24:21 Patricia: That before.

00:24:22 Speaker 7: We were.

00:24:23 Patricia: We pressed record, we were talking about two Psalms, um, that have a really nice pattern of what we do when we’re struggling with, um, a doubt or a particular perspective. Um, and obviously these were written a long time ago, um, by Jewish people. So there are some things that are mentioned in both the Psalms that don’t necessarily apply to us here as Christians in twenty twenty five, but the principles are really good to examine. So I know that we mentioned Psalm forty two, which is titled, why are you cast down, O my soul? And Roy, you gave us Psalm seventy three, and Psalm seventy three is a Psalm of Asaph. So Psalm forty two is from the sons of the sons of Korah, and seventy three is a psalm of Asaph. So not from David, but really, really great principles throughout. And, um, we read, we read the two Psalms before we came on the recording, but I would just encourage our listeners to go ahead and read and read those Psalms, because they both follow a pattern of observing hard things right in, in life, looking at the wicked prospering or um, our soul is cast down. And every time the psalmist, these two psalmists go through their doubts, they remind themselves of the goodness of the Lord and how the Lord has delivered them and Israel over and over again. And so even in the face of our own faithlessness, the psalmist keeps coming back to hope in the Lord, hope in the Lord. And I think that this it really matches up with so much of what’s been said already. Um, and it’s really great to see that pattern in scripture that the Lord left this for us to say, this is what you can do when you’re struggling.

00:26:19 Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:24 Patricia: So what does honest prayer look like in seasons of doubt? You’re struggling. You’re overwhelmed. Roy, you mentioned like debilitating doubt where everything feels like you’re not sure. Right. And I imagine that’s really difficult. Right? You walk out the front door, it’s like something’s going to fall on me if my car got to break down. Like it’s so much anxiety. So what does that honest prayer look like when things get intense and it’s not that healthy curiosity, that questioning.

00:26:54 Roy: Well, we’ve talked a lot about the goodness of God, and I think that has to be really the underpinning. If if God is not good, then everything is hopeless. Um, that ends in nihilism. So, um, the goodness of God really is behind our prayers. So we may not see it. And that’s why the Psalm seventy three is so good, because the expressions there can reflect, um, a hopelessness really.

00:27:29 Speaker 7: Um.

00:27:30 Roy: But the conclusion there is when he says, I went into the sanctuary.

00:27:36 Speaker 7: MM.

00:27:36 Roy: So the key that’s, you know, our prayers. And so if we have a sense that God is there and he’s listening.

00:27:46 Speaker 7: Mhm.

00:27:47 Roy: Um, then that forms the basis of whatever appeal, uh, we can put. And I think there is going to be a response.

00:27:56 Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:27:57 Patricia: Also, do you feel like that’s a change in perspective to like, sometimes we can become so preoccupied with our own thoughts and our own, I don’t know, our own ideas and doubts. And then we go to where the Lord is, right? We go to his house with his people and something.

00:28:14 Roy: That’s right. The whole first part of the Psalm is an external review. He’s just looking at others.

00:28:20 Speaker 7: Mhm.

00:28:21 Roy: And that’s never a good solution. We have to look to the Lord.

00:28:24 Speaker 7: Mhm. Yeah.

00:28:27 Patricia: So I guess it’s good. Like, if we’re struggling with something, we shouldn’t stay away. We shouldn’t stay away from meeting with other Christians because Lord might have something So precise not might he will have something so precise to say to us that will help us, that we would not get if we just stayed alone in our own minds.

00:28:48 Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:28:49 Peter: Well, I say, I encourage I’ve done it once or twice before to write down your prayer on a piece of paper and, uh, um, read it. And while you’re reading it, you can write down underneath it what are the lies that you are believing in? Um, so maybe the lie is God doesn’t care for me or God is not present in my life. Um, or God is withholding something good from me. Um, and then underneath it, write the truth. Uh, from a verse in scripture.

00:29:29 Speaker 7: That’s really good.

00:29:30 Peter: And, uh, this can be a practical, easy way to. Or and you can go back to it, you know, when you’re struggling with the same data again.

00:29:39 Speaker 7: Mhm.

00:29:39 Peter: Read my prayer again. Mhm. That’s why I believe the lie is. And what’s the that’s the truth. And that can be an encouragement.

00:29:49 Speaker 7: That’s really good.

00:29:50 Patricia: I even sorry, Bethel.

00:29:53 Speaker 7: Go ahead.

00:29:53 Bethel: No. Even a step further. A lot of people journal. And so they’ll journal their prayers this way. And it helps even in a few months time, further down, when you’re dealing with a new season or you’re struggling with something else to look back and be able to say, wow, remember when I was struggling with that and the Lord got me through? Wow. Remember how I felt? And he really revealed himself to me. That’s that same God. He hasn’t changed. My circumstances have just risen again and I’m in a new lesson. But he’s still the same God.

00:30:22 Speaker 7: We tend to forget.

00:30:24 Roy: What you just what you just said might sound mechanical to some people, but that’s exactly what many of the Psalms are. their recounting of what God did in the past.

00:30:39 Speaker 7: Okay.

00:30:40 Patricia: That’s good to do it again. I remember I heard a suggestion one time from a preacher who said similar to what you said, Peter, but like when you write down your prayer, you write down next to it the date where you really started praying about it intensely. And when God answers, whether it’s a yes or no or a wait, you put the date next to it. So you see the bookend because our minds naturally go, oh, thanks God, that was great. We just move on up and don’t remember like, oh, like the Lord. Really? He, he solved that for me in a way that I couldn’t have done myself. Um, but yeah, I heard that as an encouragement one time. Now I’m like, I gotta go back and do that. Write down the date where it was answered, right? Because our minds will say, oh, like God hasn’t done anything for me. And that is a that’s a doubt. That’s a lie. Oh, like he hasn’t, but he has. Right. And if we keep a record of that, I really do believe it will help buoy us, um, over time. So, um, but I’d like to ask, is it possible for doubt to strengthen our faith over time?

00:31:51 Peter: Definitely.

00:31:53 Speaker 7: Okay.

00:31:56 Roy: I think in my, my experience, um, like I mentioned before, perhaps my most experiences doubting about what something means, uh, what Scripture means. And I think, um, doubt, as I said before, is really the doorway to understanding more about what the issue is. MM. Um, and I think often people that don’t doubt have shallow thoughts about what something means, um, scripture in particular Is amazingly profound. We don’t realize how profound it is, and very often. Um, even reading a slightly different translation, even reading a translation that’s not very good will sometimes prompt ideas about what a verse means that you would not have otherwise thought of. And of course, the, the, the problem might be that you’ll be led astray, but you have to deal with that. And the way you deal with it is keeping in mind another verse from Isaiah that’s very important. And that is little that we learn little by little here, a little there, a little, uh, line upon line, precept upon precept. So there’s no oh, and the other verse that’s really important is in Peter. Uh, no. Scripture is of its own isolated interpretation. I’m paraphrasing that which I think is misunderstood by some of the modern translations. Um, Darby has it right. These are important principles. We need to have a general knowledge of Scripture, because what one verse seems to say will be if we misinterpret a verse in one place, maybe put it this way, then that can be corrected by a verse in another place. So we have to have a general understanding, a general knowledge of Scripture.

00:34:01 Speaker 7: Oh, okay.

00:34:04 Patricia: So my last question is about, um, encouragement for people who are doubting right now, because I feel like, and I’ve experienced this in my own life, that when we experience doubts or someone close to us or near to us is doubting, we can recoil from that person. Um, if they express a doubt that is scary to us, Like, oh, well, that’s like a fundamental that you should just believe, right? Or we feel very uncomfortable or uncomfortable or unsettled by that doubt. Um, maybe it’s something that we doubt as well, but we don’t want to admit it. Like, how do we deal with other Christians who express doubts that make us uncomfortable? How do we encourage them and deal with that?

00:34:51 Roy: Can I start by talking a little bit more personal about this? Not with other people, but anything that comes up? Uh, a question maybe you hear a preacher on the internet or whatever, a faith in the in a Christian sense. And I think this is so important that we understand that faith is really not gullible. We don’t believe something when we don’t have evidence for it. Christian faith is evidence based. And when John was writing his gospel, he said, I think it’s in verse chapter twenty or so. He said, these things have I written? Okay. John was an eyewitness, and he had other people around him that had also witnessed the same thing. So he had to be accurate in what he said. And he wrote a lot of things that were pretty precise about what the Lord said. So we have to look at that and say, wow, this guy knew what he was talking about. He was a reliable witness. He had people that would have beat him around the head and shoulders if he had said something wrong. Right. You know, Peter would not let some John say something wrong. I think we can. We get we get that from Peter, at least. He was pretty outspoken. So John had to write what he had seen and heard in a pretty accurate way. We have a faith that is based on written records of what people saw. The Apostle Paul wrote about the resurrection in chapter fifteen of First Corinthians. And he could say, look, if you doubt what I’m telling you, go ask those five hundred people that are hanging around. Well, some of them have died, but go ask them.

00:36:51 Speaker 7: Huh?

00:36:51 Roy: They know what they’re talking about. They know what they heard and saw. And so we have solid evidence for what we believe. So doubts come up. What’s your evidence? Where’s your evidence? You know, somebody tells me something. Where’s your evidence?

00:37:12 Speaker 7: Mhm.

00:37:13 Roy: And another principle connected with this is that the first thing that we hear or the first thing that we see might not be the the correct. You know, there’s a proverb. It’s it’s phrased as if someone was telling you something. He. That is, if he that is first in his own cause seemeth just. But his neighbor comes and searches him out. That’s a actually a very fundamental principle. The first thing that I that comes into my mind when I’m reading Scripture might not be correct. I have to keep reading. I have to question it. I have to doubt it, as it were. That’s why I say doubting can be a pathway to deeper understanding. And that’s a principle that we need to realize. If you read something in scripture, come back and read it again next year or a month later, don’t just, you know, it’s something that we have to learn over time. We accumulate evidence that puts our doubts. a side.

00:38:24 Peter: I’d like to share a kind of different side of doubt. If you’re doubting, uh, because of doubting God’s goodness or doubting the Lord’s faithfulness through difficult circumstances, I’d encourage you to write down and memorize verses about perseverance and persevere. And I’d like to share one of them, which is James one twelve. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. And there’s multiple others. I have four verses that I keep just so I can. The Lord, you know, tells us to persevere and difficult circumstances and difficult times of doubt.

00:39:11 Speaker 7: That’s good.

00:39:12 Bethel: I don’t think there’s ever been a time that I doubted and didn’t come out Stronger in my faith after going through it with the Lord. And so for me, I just say, let it be a chance for him to prove himself to you. If I can say that so plainly. But let it be a time where God can come through for you again. And this is something you remember in the future. Like, oh, remember when I struggled with this? And then the Lord really came through this way and cling on to that. And like Peter and Roy have said, go back into scripture, find where he has done that for all of mankind. Because every one of those stories, the Lord is still faithful. The Lord is still good. The Lord is still with us. He’s overcome the doubt. He is who he is. And let this be a chance for him to prove that to you again.

00:39:59 Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah.

00:40:01 Patricia: I feel like that’s really, I feel like I think about why memorization is so important. Um, memorizing the word of God because there’s, we have so many thoughts. And when you do memorize scripture, the Holy Spirit will bring it to mind as a block, right? And because sometimes you don’t have time to sit down and write in your journal and go find that because something will come up while you’re driving in your mind or you’re working, you’re doing something right and it comes in your face. And what is the what is the defense against that? Right? I need to be ready. Like, obviously, like the Lord knows all. But when Satan came to him, he said, it is written and I need to be ready with my. It is written right to speak and say no. Like this is like, this is what the truth of Scripture is. So that’s my challenge to myself and to others. Like, I know it’s so easy to just scroll on your Bible app, right? Google it. But memorization is still the way to go. Um, yeah. So, well, thank you, Peter Roy and Bethel for this important conversation about doubt and living as a Christian. I hope that our listeners know that they are not the only ones who may struggle with similar questions. And we touched very, very lightly on people in the Scripture who struggle with doubt. And there were a variety of ways the Lord spoke to them and spoke to what they were struggling with. So I would encourage everyone, of course, I think the best place to start is in the positive. Go to Hebrews eleven, the Hall of Faith, right? Read about faith because we talked about Sarah and Abraham and their struggles. But you know, the conclusion of the matter is that through faith, right? Um, Sarah judged him people, he who, um, had promised and he gave her the strength to conceive. And so we see the end, right? And what the Lord does and how he gives us faith because we can’t get it from ourselves. So, um, we encourage you to keep reading the Bible. That’s the number one thing. Keep reading, keep praying. Talk to the Lord about your doubts. Don’t hide them from him. Tell him that you are struggling. Um, and then I would encourage you to talk to some mature Christians who have navigated these challenges so they can encourage you in ways that you probably have never thought of before. So for more about this topic, you can check out our various articles and Q and A’s at patternsof dot org. See you next time, everybody, for another conversation about how to live this Christian life. Bye.

00:42:33 Patricia: Thank you for listening to the Patterns of Truth podcast. We invite you to join us for our next episode. And we also encourage you to check out Patterns of truth dot org, where we post articles every week for the encouragement and growth of Christ followers. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to submit them on our website. I’m Peter. Until next time.