Does God Doubt Me If I Doubt Him?
Does God actually care about our doubt? Does He care what we think about Him when we have more questions than faith? Those are questions that appear in our minds in difficult times. These are the questions I wrestled with last summer during an unexpected season of doubt.
I was thrilled to have been offered a job traveling and working with teenagers from across the country. This job was an opportunity to serve others and have an impact that went beyond the summer. But as I soon found out, great opportunities can often come with great challenges which lead to great doubts.
How We Feel During Times of Doubt
I got to my new job thinking I knew everything there was to know about being a leader in ministry. About a month into the summer, I got fired. The news hit me hard. All I could think about was how I failed God and how He doesn’t have any more plans for me. I thought I had failed God because I failed at the job. I didn’t understand that failing at a task is not the same thing as failing God.
I was powerless to change the situation, and I felt alone. The failure weighed heavy on my shoulders. Because I felt weak, I assumed God was weak. But the truth is my emotions are not fact. Feeling something doesn’t make it true. God has the truth, not us.
What God Says About Our Times Of Doubt
God still has a plan for us and He still loves us even in the midst of our greatest doubt—and His plan includes hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). I thought I had reached the end of God’s plans for my life, but He still had more. God still had amazing opportunities for my life like NewSpring College. Our doubt doesn’t cause God’s plans to stop. No doubt that we have hinders God’s love for us.
No doubt that we have hinders God’s love for us.
No wave of doubt is larger than the wave of God’s grace and love.
When we feel hopeless, God gives us hope because He holds us up (Isaiah 41:10). When we have thoughts like, “This is hopeless” and “God doesn’t have anymore plans,” we are still being held together by God.
God will let us go through a storm, but He will never let us sink. Good things can come from a season of doubt. God can use that season to strengthen our faith and shape us into the person he wants us to be.
We don’t have to rely on our own strength in times of doubt because God provides our strength.
Times of doubt are temporary, but how we view God during times of doubt is eternally significant. Doubt is never the end of God’s plans. Doubt prepares us to receive God’s plans.