Ada Obiako: When Doubt Creeps In

Doubt is a pesky visitor.

It gives you no warning of the exact moment it will come in. It arrives unannounced like an unwanted house guest. It creeps up on you like a predator. It’s relentless. It doesn’t sleep. It plants fear-filled thoughts in your mind.

“How can I have such a foolish dream? I sound stupid!”

“What kind of God of love is this? How can all this be happening to me? Does He even care? Is He even there?”

“Why am I different? Why don’t I think the way others do? Everyone thinks I’m crazy!”

“When will it get easier? When will the money come? Am I cut out for this “vision” thing?”

Doubt will make your beliefs and dreams seem “insane”, leaving you feeling insecure and hopeless. Doubt will make you question everything you believe to be true. Doubt will attempt to block you from your great life by reminding you of how “unrealistic” you’re being. After all, do you really want to carry the stigma of being an “unrealistic person”? Doubt will do its best to cripple you in your tracks.

The surprising truth: Doubt is not your enemy.

Doubt can be a good thing. Doubt tests the level of faith you claim to have. Doubt knocks on your soul to remind you of what you believe and why you should still consider it to be true. Doubt gives you the opportunity to confirm your hope by researching other possibilities and finding your faith worth re-choosing.

When used correctly, doubt serves as a sharpening tool of your faith.

Faith is defined as “hope in that which is not seen”. You cannot have faith without some doubt. How can you be a person of faith if you have not had the opportunity to choose other routes of belief and denied them? Be it your faith in God, your faith in your visions, your faith in your God-given purpose, there is always a bit of room kept for doubt. Doubt is what elevates the beauty of your faith. It is what proves that although you have many realistic and convincing reasons why you should abandon your beliefs, there is a hope within your soul and within your imagination that screams louder than your rational thoughts.

When used correctly, doubt serves as a sharpening tool of your faith.

Many famous people of faith have had doubts. Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun well-known for her compassion and service to the poor, sick, and dying in India. Mother Teresa wrote that there were times in her life when she suffered periods of deep doubt about God. Think of the disciple Thomas. His fellow disciples told him that Jesus was indeed resurrected and had appeared to them but he refused to believe – even though Christ told them before he died that he would be resurrected.

Now let’s do a little history review of Abraham Lincoln – before he became the 16th president of the U.S. He was a failure as a businessman. He turned to politics and was defeated in his first try for legislature, again defeated in his first attempt to be nominated for congress, then defeated in his application to be Commissioner of the General Land Office, defeated in the senatorial election of 1854, defeated in his attempt for the vice-presidency in 1856, and defeated in the senatorial election of 1858. Around this point he wrote a letter to a friend saying, “I am now the most miserable man living.”

You think he had doubts?

When used correctly, doubt serves as a sharpening tool of your faith.

You should not be ashamed to have doubts. We are humans; visual beings. We have been trained to accept things by sight; it is not easy to choose to live in faith. It is normal to question your beliefs in a person or a vision you cannot physically see yet! In fact, if you never have doubts you should be worried. That means you’re not fully living in faith or giving your faith much thought.

When used correctly, doubt serves as a sharpening tool of your faith.

Your job as a person of faith isn’t to be devoid of doubts. Your job as a person of faith is to be filled with MORE faith than doubt. You’ve heard about the 80-20 rule? You might want to apply it here. It is only when you are filled with more doubt than faith that the likelihood of living your great life dissolves. It is only when you are filled with more doubt than faith that the image of you lying on your deathbed filled with unused gifts, which could have made your life and that of others greater, becomes a strong possibility. It is only when you are filled with more doubt than faith that the idea of you abandoning God’s joy and peace for hopelessness and senseless suffering becomes a strong possibility.

When used correctly, doubt serves as a sharpening tool of your faith.

You shouldn’t be terrified by doubt but you shouldn’t be complacent about it either. When you have more faith than doubt, doubt serves as a sharpening tool of your faith. When you have more doubt than faith, doubt serves to cripple you in your tracks.

I recommend keeping the scale tipped in favor of faith.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime | Scott Griessel
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Adaeze Diana Obiako is a freelance writer, copy-editor, speaker, and vision coach who helps young Christian women feeling depressed/hopeless discover who they are and why they exist so that they can learn how to enjoy more fulfilling and fruitful lives. She blogs about the spiritual lessons she’s learned at www.deserveyourgreatlife.com. You can follow Adaeze on Twitter and Google+.