I grew up near a railroad track that was supposed to be used for trains, but I thought it was mainly made to ride my bike on. It had places that were difficult to ride over and other places that were impossible. There was one particular place along the path that I was told could not be ridden over. It was very rocky, steep and skinny. Even though my friends told me it was too difficult I did not believe them. I had to figure this out for myself. I did not try to go accross when my friends were around. I took my black bmx bike with very cool front spring suspension and two hand brakes up to the trail when it was just me and my doubt. I decided to get a run at the “impossible” part of the trail so that my speed would carry me to the other side. It all went well except that I did not stay on the trail. I went down into a ditch that was about twelve feet deep and full of big rocks and water. I will not tell you whether it hurt or not, I will just tell you that I then believed what my friends had told me. It was indeed “impossible”.
How about your faith in God? Have people told you about God and you are just not sure? I encourage you to trust in God and go to Him. You will find that God is indeed true and trustworthy. In the same way I proved for myself that the bike trail was “impossible” to ride across, you can prove that God is real and true by trusting in God and watching to see how He proves Himself. Make your doubt work out for good by watching and seeing if what God says is true. Trust in God and watch for Him to prove Himself true!
#1 by Anna on February 16, 2009 - 5:32 pm
So, how much should we doubt and ask questions and how much should we just trust and realize we DON’T have to know everything?
#2 by Sierra on February 18, 2009 - 10:36 am
Is it different to doubt with your head than it is to doubt with your heart? Is that even possible? If so, should you ever doubt with your heart?
#3 by Bethany on February 19, 2009 - 6:17 pm
So I do have a question about doubts. What if a person who is a Christian keeps constantly doubting practicalley for as long as you’ve known them and they never seem to stop? What then???
#4 by Justin on February 19, 2009 - 9:51 pm
This is in response to the past three comments. The def. of doubt is “uncertainty” and “lack of full proof”. This makes doubt of the heart and head both possible. And I think we see them both in the Bible. There is never too much doubt unless we allow it to take our eyes off of God. If we allow God to have an opportunity to show Himself true and trustworthy we will find that our faith can be placed in Him. The problem occurs when we think He does not deserve our trust and we begin to trust ourselves or something else. Also, we should seek out wise advice and answers as we desire to trust God more and more. We may not be able to find out all of the answers about God, but we can understand more and more!
What do you think?
#5 by Bethany on February 20, 2009 - 5:56 pm
So pretty much it’s like that verse says “Know the truth and the truth will set you free”, right? So if a friend of mine is having doubts nonstop I should encourage them to seek out the truth and trust in God. Have you given the question I asked on Wednesday about how God could call the world good when the serpent was in it any more thought?
#6 by Justin on February 21, 2009 - 2:40 pm
Doubt can eat and tear up our faith just like doubt can hurt a friendship. If all we do is focus on doubts we will begin to question everything. If we think a friend has done something behind our back and we focus on that doubt we often begin to doubt all of their actions. If we instead focus on knowing that our friend has always been trustworthy and then seek an answer to the one doubt, a lot of problems can be solved. If all we do is focus on doubt then we will then begin to doubt more and more until we doubt almost everything. Have you ever doubted a friend about one thing and then it became more and more and more until you found that the truth would have stopped all of the doubt. With God we need to focus on what we know is true and NOT focus on the doubt. Then while we focus on God we can seek out answers to our doubt. Focusing on doubt is bad.
What do you think?
#7 by Anna on February 21, 2009 - 5:44 pm
So, doubt isn’t bad but if we question it TO much, it’s bad. Where do you make the line between asking questions, or doubting, and just trusting? And are doubt and asking questions the same thing? Kind of not, right? But maybe a litte?… And I didn’t read your whole things…not even that much so maybe you answered my questions in there.
#8 by Anna on March 10, 2009 - 5:34 pm
So, if doubt is good then how come Jesus rebuked Peter and stuff for their doubts? Is it the right kind of doubt that is good? Was Peter having the “wrong kinda doubt”? Where do you draw the line between good and bad doubts and between questioning and doubts?
#9 by Justin on March 13, 2009 - 3:13 pm
The story of Peter walking on water with Jesus is a great example. There are some parts of the story I think of are importance. Did Jesus know there was going to be a storm? If so, why did He send them out on purpose? I think they were sent into the storm on purpose. Look at the end of the story and we see that Jesus is proclaimed as the son of God. Second, it appears that Peter gets in trouble when he does not keep his eyes on Jesus and is instead distracted by and focuses on the things around him. The same is true for us and doubt. I don’t think doubt is bad except when we begin to take our eyes off of Jesus. Even when we are not sure how, why, when, etc., we need to continue to keep our eyes on Jesus and have faith. With good doubt we keep our eyes on Jesus we doubt the how or why. With bad doubt we begin to doubt Jesus and don’t think He can or will.
We all must keep our eyes focused on God, even when we doubt.
#10 by Anna on March 16, 2009 - 3:14 pm
You can have doubts and still be a Christian (if not, none of us would be!) but how do doubts and trusting, having faith, for whatever go together?
#11 by Justin on March 16, 2009 - 5:40 pm
Faith is that step we take when we have doubts. Faith means to trust God. So, when we look at what we see around us and we see that what we have in the Bible is trustworthy we can trust who Jesus said He is and we can trust Jesus with our life. Then, when we have doubts we look to Him and trust Him to be right even when we are not certain. God loves us and only wants what is best for us and when we look to Him and trust Him we will be rewarded for that faith.
We are not called to have blind faith so we will continue to have questions and doubts throughout our life. We all should continue to find answers and look for why we believe what we do. This will include looking to God for answers and trusting that He will guide us and answer our questions.
#12 by Anna on March 16, 2009 - 10:00 pm
That’s good for me. We aren’t called to have a blind faith–we shouldn’t. Perhaps shouldn’t is the right term but so God doesn’t call us to have blind faith? I am doing a speech about doubt, faith, and kinda fear for forensics. Humm…that’s good. I hadn’t really thought about that, at least not really kinda thought about it lately.
#13 by Anna on March 17, 2009 - 1:38 pm
Should faith always 100% totally? Is faith always 100%?