As I was going through some of my husband’s old papers, I found this quote, hand-printed on a 3×5 card.
“If faith never encounters doubt,
if truth never struggles with error,
if good never battles evil,
how can faith know its own power?
In my own pilgrimage,
if I had to choose between a faith that
has stared doubt in the eye and made it blink,
or a naive faith that has never known the firing line of doubt,
I will choose the former every time.”
Gary Parker, The Gift of Doubt, from crisis to authentic faith
I don’t know if my husband read this book, but when I checked, this quote is all over the internet. Seems like a lot of people struggle with faith and doubt. Me among them. Not surprising. Doubt was the weapon Satan used against in the Garden of Eden.
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.
One day he asked the woman,
“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.
“It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.
God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.
“God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it,
and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
Genesis 3:1-5 NLT
The Voice Bible puts it this way:
Die? No, you’ll not die. God is playing games with you.
The truth is that God knows the day you eat the fruit from that tree
you will awaken something powerful in you and become like Him:
possessing knowledge of both good and evil.
Genesis 3:4-5 VOICE
“Did God really say?” Really? Are you sure?
The rest, as they say, is history.
The Bible repeatedly tells us not to doubt. (Matthew 14:31, Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:23, Luke 24:38, John 20:27, James 1:6)
Sounds like doubting is sin. But wait! The Bible also says this:
Be merciful to those who doubt;
Jude 22 NIV
Doub happens. So does Faith. I need to think about this some more.