Honest Doubts

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

The novelist Flannery O’Connor once referred to faith as “a way of walking in darkness, a determined insistence on moving forward even when we’re uncertain what lies ahead.” There’s a mountain of truth in that statement. And, it resonates with someone we are familiar with in the New Testament, John the Baptizer. He was shackled in a dingy jail, weary and disillusioned. The circumstance he was in threatened to rob him of his faith and hope. 

So, he sent some friends to find Jesus. They were told to ask a vital question, “Are you the Messiah or should we keep looking?” He must have been in a dark place. I’m not referring to the darkness of the jail cell, but rather the darkness of doubt. “Are you the One?” “Why aren’t you doing what the Messiah is supposed to do?” “Why am I here waiting again?” “Did I just believe in a fairy tale?”

I don’t want to get carried away with John’s doubt. In fact, I find some comfort there. Here’s a guy who was faithful, knew the Scriptures, was bold in his faith, who even baptized Jesus. Still, he had fundamental doubts!

One thing that strikes me here is that Jesus didn’t unleash a scathing, theological treatise or rebuke John’s friends. Instead, He told them to return to their friend and tell him what they had seen: ”The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor” [Matthew 11.4-5]. In other words, He was doing the very things Isaiah said the coming One would do [Isaiah 35.1-6; 61.1-7]. 

John had not been deceived. He hadn’t believed a lie. The Anointed One was here!

Perhaps you, too, experience doubt and confusion while waiting on the Lord. It’s nothing new. Just keep moving forward through your uncertainty. Throw all your doubts and concerns to the Lord. He will answer in time. He is the One who never fails. 

“Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” Matthew 11.3