New Life Baptist Church, College Station Texas

For the past three weeks, we’ve been learn­ing how we are to deal with our doubts . We learned that the answer isn’t to have more self-confidence, but rather greater faith in God and His Word. We learned that the answer isn’t to be more self-aware, but to be more aware of who God is and what He has spo­ken to us. We learned that the answer isn’t to try to pro­vide a solu­tion, but to trust in God and His pro­vi­sion for us.

But today, you will still face doubts. If you’ve bought into any kind of a silver-bullet the­ory of change, this will be very upset­ting to you. Many Chris­tians think that our main prob­lem is a lack of knowl­edge, a lack of infor­ma­tion. But keep in mind that Moses didn’t lack infor­ma­tion. For exam­ple, God told him clearly, “And they [the peo­ple of Israel] will lis­ten to your voice” (Ex. 3:18a). But Moses coun­tered with, “But behold, they will not believe me or lis­ten to my voice” (Ex. 4:1a). Moses’ prob­lem wasn’t a lack of infor­ma­tion; it was his unbe­liev­ing heart. A sim­ple study, a three-week series, even an inten­sive dis­ci­ple­ship effort won’t cure you of your doubts.

Con­trary to what you’ll hear in songs and movies, it’s a bad idea to be true to your heart (per­haps espe­cially when 90s boy bands tell you that’s a good idea). Our hearts are con­tin­u­ally telling us to doubt God and His Word and to put con­fi­dence in our­selves and what we think or feel. We must fight what seems nat­ural and nor­mal and instead decide to trust God and His Word — even when that seems counter intu­itive. The bat­tle begins again today as we seek to walk by faith and not by sight. What will it look like for you to walk by faith today and in the days ahead?

In last night’s mes­sage, “Deal­ing with Doubt: Part 2,” we learned that our doubts must be fought with the truth of who God is and what He has spo­ken to us. God revealed Him­self to Moses as, “I AM WHO I AM,” and then explained in four dif­fer­ent ways that He was send­ing Moses to the peo­ple of Israel and Pharaoh.

Today is Mon­day, and your week is already under­way. As an employee, a stu­dent, a mom, or a dad, you are going to be faced with chal­lenges and tri­als this week — chal­lenges and tri­als that are more than you can han­dle. Once you rec­og­nize that, doubts are going to arise in your heart and mind. Peo­ple and prob­lems will seem very large, and God and His Word will seem very small. It is in these moments that you, like Moses, must return to the truth about who God is and what He has spo­ken to you. God is the great “I AM.” When­ever you are weak, He is strong. He is able to accom­plish any­thing He desires through you.

Fur­ther, God has sent you in His author­ity to be about the work of mak­ing dis­ci­ples. Some peo­ple talk about voca­tional min­is­ters and mis­sion­ar­ies by say­ing they are “full-time.” The truth is, every one of us is a full-time min­is­ter and a full-time mis­sion­ary. As Jeff Van­der­stelt has said, God sim­ply routes our pay­checks through dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies. When doubts arise in your mind, remem­ber that your God has sent you to do His work. You dis­ci­ple under His authority.

What doubts have already arisen in your heart and mind this week? What will it look like to walk by faith in the midst of your doubts?