Do This When You Are Tempted To Doubt God’s Goodness

It is common for unbelievers to doubt God as they have no love relationship with Him. Many even preach non-existence of God.

This is not so with born again Christians who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, tasted the goodness of God and are involved in the ministry of God.

However, there come times or seasons in the lives of God’s children when their faith is tested through challenges of life.

When this happens, some believers are tempted to doubt the goodness of God and even give up on Him.

You, reader, may have had our own moments when you doubted God, considering the seemingly insurmountable situations that came your way.

As a child of God, you fasted, prayed and lived by God’s Word, yet the mountain of difficulties kept rushing on you on every side. You received no answers to your problems.

Because of these things you now doubt whether God is truly good, kind, loving and caring  as He is projected to be. You wonder whether God is merciful and hears the cries of His children.

Fellow believer, I want to tell you that you are not the only one who has faced this situation in your walk with God. I and many other Christians have faced similar situations.

Moreover, several heroes of faith in the Bible had moments of difficulties which led them to express doubts in God. John the Baptist and Gideon are examples we wish to talk about.

“And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? (Luke 7:18-23).

If you are a reader of the Bible, you will recall that it was John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus and announced Him to the world before Jesus started His public ministry. It was John who said the following about Jesus:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me. ’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. ’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34).

You see, John bore this testimony about Jesus, yet he later doubted whether Jesus was the Christ or they should expect another. It is obvious that John faced distressing challenges in his life which he needed Jesus’ help, but the help never came.

The same can be said about Gideon, an Israelite whose people had suffered many things at the hand of their enemies, the Medianites.

One day, when the LORD appeared to him, assuring him of His divine presence with His covenant people, Gideon doubted that the God who rescued his fathers from Egypt was still with them.

“And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us” (Judges 6:13).

These examples show that it is not unusual for believers to be tempted to doubt the goodness of God in the face of troubles.

In situations like these, the important thing we must learn to do is to draw much closer to God; we must not move farther away from Him. We must be careful not to seek help from satanic sources.

John approached Christ Jesus to find an answer to his question. This should inspire us to deepen our desire to seek God through fasting and prayers, and we will eventually find the will of God concerning our situations.

We must also make time to meditate on God’s promises, seek fellowship with other believers and reflect on past experiences of God’s faithfulness.

These will impact strength, increase our faith, enable us to live by faith and wait patiently on God to see us through our difficulties.

By James Quansah

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