Dealing With Doubt

Overcoming Doubt in Your  

 Relationship With God

 

The Apostle Paul wrote once wrote:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . . ” (Romans 1: 16)

God offers us the free gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and His payment for our sins on thecross.

But what if we doubt?  Some of the greatest people of God were stricken by doubt at times.

Their reassurance and comfort were found in the Word of God.

Knowing God

It’s difficult to have faith in someone we don’t have a relationship with, someone we don’t know.

God reveals Himself to us in His Word, the Holy Bible. Christ established a church on earth where this Word is preached and taught correctly.

The church is also where the Sacraments instituted by God are provided to us: Baptism and Communion.

God Reveals His Presence in Part Through the Visible Universe

Throughout history very few peoples have not sensed that a God exists who created the universe. Our experience teaches us that things we see in the world came from somewhere. It is not wise to assume the universe created itself.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, Chapter 1, verses 19-20, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

The Conscience Proves God’s Existence

 Our own experience and history reveal that people have a natural sense of right and wrong. Very few societies believe murder or theft are morally right.

Paul explained in the Book of Romans that God has written His law on our hearts in Chapter 2, verse 15: “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. . . .”

The human conscience, that holds us accountable to a power higher than ourselves, testifies to the existence of God.

The Limits of the Natural Knowledge of God

 The universe around us and our conscience tell us God exists, but don`t tell us about who He is or what He has done.

Man-made religions that come from only a natural knowledge of God are idolatrous, pagan, and superstitious. (Romans 1: 19-32; Acts 17: 22-25) When people try to determine who God is from nature, they make an idol of Him; they worship the creation instead of the Creator. (Psalm 96:5)

Importantly the natural knowledge of God does not provide salvation and eternal life because the grace of God in Jesus Christ is revealed only in the Gospel, the Good News.

From nature we cannot learn about God’s saving grace in the death and resurrection of His only Son. (Ephesians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 2: 7-11)

God Reveals Himself in His Word – the Bible

 God reveals Himself in the Bible, the only divinely inspired book, so that we might know who He really is and what He has done, so that we might be saved through Jesus Christ and worship God properly.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 20, verse 31 explains: ^“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Nature tells us there is a God; the Bible tells us we have a Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Bible also outlines and describes God’s plan of salvation for us His sinful children. We learn in Holy Scripture of God’s love and salvation found only in His Son Jesus Christ, and that this salvation is through God’s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus as Saviour.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 3, verse 16 reveals: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

The Bible contains the most powerful message and best news ever, that Jesus has paid the full price for our sins on the cross and that believers are promised forgiveness and heaven.

Knowing the Word of God

 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”                                                                 Romans 10: 17

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. . . . ”  2 Timothy 3: 16

Our Human Pride & Assumption We Can Understand All Things Can Lead to Doubt

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”     Proverbs 3:5-8

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 1: 18-21

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

Colossians 2:8

Trusting the Word of God

“All Your words are true; all Your just laws will stand forever.”                                                                                      Psalm 119:160

“Your word is truth” John 17:17

Heaven and earth will disappear, but My words will remain forever.”                                                                     Luke 21:33

Recognizing God as Creator of All Things

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”                                                                                 Genesis 1: 1

 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”              John 1: 3

(Learn more at Creation Ministires) http://creation.com/

Understanding God’s Love for Us in Jesus Christ                                  

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we                 were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. . . . but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Ephesians 2:4-5 

Realizing That Salvation is Through Faith Alone                                 

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2: 8-9

 More Bible verses and explanation that salvation is through faith alone 

Accepting Human Sin Brought Suffering Into the Word  And Who Can Save Us From it

^“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. . . .”                                                                                                                                Romans 5:12

 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.                  Romans 6: 23

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