“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” – Isaiah 7.9
From David King:
It was John Stott, probably the greatest famous Bible teacher of the last century, who said that the aim of good Bible teaching was to: “Comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. It is a reminder that the mark of success for this daily blog will be whether it holds together the two of these.
One of the things I’m struck by in Scripture is that the two nearly always go together, though one is often hiding behind the other. Today’s verse is one such example. At first sight it appears to be solely challenging, the sort of verse that has me worried and then resolved to action. And that is definitely appropriate. It is a warning.
But it is also an encouragement. The king of Judah was facing a complex and challenging situation. Any move might as easily prove to be a disaster as a salvation. We too will find ourselves swamped – feeling the weight of the responsibility and the fear of the outcome. God tells the king that all he need do is trust him.
It is that simple, even if it isn’t always easy. So it is for us. All we need to do is have faith in God. With faith, we do not need worry about anything else. Without it, there is no hope.
But how do we stand firm in faith in the midst of doubts? One phrase I heard recently was “Doubting Doubts”. It asks the question, why are you so ready to believe your doubts and doubt God? Instead, when doubts come, try reversing it: doubt your doubts and believe God. With the help of God’s Spirit, bring your doubts out into the brightness of God’s truth. Like many viruses, doubts don’t survive long in the Sonshine.
Three things to help us with doubting doubts:
- Talk them through with a mature Christian
- Listen to this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHCx4vlsewc
- Listen to this sermon: https://sermons.stpats.org.uk/id/2019-01-20-1820/
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