Doubt and the Unfailing Work of God

Apr 18

There’s an old game played by romantics where you take a flower, usually a daisy and pick off one petal at a time, alternately saying “He loves me,” pull, “He loves me not,” pull. The last petal pulled supposedly reveals the truth: is the love real, or not ? I don’t know how mutilating a poor flower is supposed to be an omen for love (blame the French, they made it up), but many a longing heart has found comfort—and distress—because of dead flower petals.

Sometimes I think we play this game with God, but instead of pulling petals we pull our own spiritual performance:

I read my Bible today! He loves me!
I yelled at my brother today. He loves me not.
I went to church today! He loves me!
I cheated on my math test. He loves me not.

And on and on we go, judging the love of God for us not based upon His character but based upon our performance. Our failures and doubts toss us like the wind on the sea. All the while the love of God for His children stands immovable, steadfast, sure. We looked at the steadfast love of God in the last post in this series. If you doubt your salvation, the thing you must do, above all else, is look at your Savior.

But at some point, you must also look at what God is doing in you. Dear doubting Christian, do not forget all that God has wrought.

The Unfailing Work of God

A Living Faith Grows

In assurance, what we are looking at is the reality of faith, the trueness of faith—not the supposed quantity or strength of faith.

Mark 4:30–32 (NASB95) 30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.”

The mustard seed is the smallest garden seed in the land of Israel. Why does Jesus choose it as the epitome of the kingdom of God? Why not choose a walnut, or a coconut? Because the mustard seed, even though it is small, is still full of life. It may be minuscule, but it is still real, still full of life. It is not strong faith that saves but faith in a strong Savior that saves.

But how can you tell if your faith is genuine, is alive, and not dead like James 2 says? Like a seed, it is full of life, and like a seed, it grows. As I defined earlier in this series:

“Saving faith is… a commitment of the whole person to the whole Christ. It is a relying upon Him for all that He is with all that we are. The believer embraces Christ with his mind, heart, and will—as Savior, Lord, Advocate, Provider, Sustainer, Counselor, and God.” [1]

Real faith relies on Christ for all that He is with all that we are.

Christians are probably all different sized and shaped “mustard trees” of faith, with many branches still in process, and with many branches that need pruning. We bear that fruit of the Spirit over here abundantly, but not so much that fruit over here. But that doesn’t make us better or us worse. We are all in the middle of our journeys, traveling to heaven, still growing our little mustard trees of faith.

Take heart, dear Christian! Many saints that have gone before us stumbled along the way, but they did not fall ultimately.

David committed adultery, murder, and deception, yet was proven to be a true child of God. God brought him to repentance, and he was saved. (See Psalm 32 & 51).
Jonah the prophet disobeyed the Lord and hated that God was a Savior by nature (Jonah 4:1-3)—but then later wrote the book of Jonah as a letter of repentance.
John the Baptist doubted that Jesus was the Christ (Luke 7:18-23), but endured martyrdom for this same Christ.
Peter denied that he even knew the Lord three times, but became a pillar of the church, the leader of the apostles, and a martyr for the Lord his God.

Surely in their trials, their assurance wavered. By definition, doubt is antithetical to faith. But doubt and faith can exist at the same time in within a Christian. Read Psalm 42-43, 73, 88. As the father of the demoniac prayed, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24), so too must we pray.

We must never sit in our doubts. Again, doubts die when they are dragged into the light of God. But simply because we waver, we should not think our faith is dead. God is still working in you. God is still growing your faith.

1 Corinthians 3:6 (NASB) I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

growing taller, Bit by Bit

At my parent’s house, we have a part of the wall where we marked our height each year. On our birthdays, we kids would get out a pencil, stand up straight against the wall, and make a new mark. Once, I asked my dad to measure me the day after my birthday to see if I had grown any since the day before—just in case. Disappointingly, I hadn’t. But, year by year, I grew. I mean, I must have, because I’m not the same height as I was when I was 12.

That’s how we ought to think about faith. Day to day, you probably won’t be able to tell the difference. Even year to year, your growth may not be discernible. Instead, when you’re looking for evidence of a real growing faith, compare 5 years ago to now. That’s a more accurate time scale. Remember, God is the one who causes the growth. In due time, He will make true faith obvious. You can’t rush it. You can trust Him. You can’t force it. You can believe Him.

Dear doubting Christian, you must come into the light of God. Know Him. And as you bask in His light, like a tree dig down deep in who He is and grow. Meditate on the lyrics of the old hymn, until you can repeat the last phrase with all your heart:

How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen one
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
How can I give an answer?
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom.[2]