Monday, January 17, 2011
Struggling with Doubt
And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" —Matthew 11:2
It may surprise you to know that some of the greatest men and women of God whom we read about in the pages of Scripture have had their moments of doubt. Even the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, struggled with doubt.
In John's case, we might say that his doubt was due to confusion. He had a certain concept of what the Christ was supposed to do that Jesus simply was not doing. It is not that Jesus was failing to do what He was supposed to do; it was that John misunderstood what God was going to do.
Scripture clearly taught that before the Messiah would establish His kingdom, He would suffer and die. Before Jesus would sit on a throne, He first would be nailed to a cross. This is what the Scripture taught. Passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 spoke extensively about the suffering of the Messiah. But His role had been misunderstood. So John the Baptist sent word from prison to ask Jesus, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" (Matthew 11:2). Yet everything was going exactly as it was supposed to go. It is just that John misunderstood.
That can happen to us as well. Sometimes we misunderstand God and His Word. Something happens that wasn't part of our plan for our lives, and we wonder why God allowed it. We wonder whether He is paying attention. The problem is that we interpret God in light of the tragedy instead of the other way around. Many times, our doubt is due to our confusion about what we think God ought to be doing.
Are you entertaining doubts today? Take heart. God is in control, and He has His purposes in the circumstances of your life.
Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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