If you are like me, then I bet you grew up believing that doubting or questioning God's presence, power, or justice is sinful and shameful. The definition of doubt is to question or feel uncertain about and that is easy enough to do. Another word that you find in the New Testament is the word "forsake." The word means to abandon or renounce. Jesus himself asked God in Matthew 27:46 why He forsook His only Son. Not just abandoning Him but ditching Him altogether. Do you think Jesus doubted God at that moment? And was He sinful in doing so? If so then He would cease to be who He was and couldn't have done the work that God had sent Him here to do.
"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46 ESV
Thus the question: Is it a sin to doubt God's presence and love, especially in times of great loss or deep suffering? Who is right-Jesus or the man made laws of faith that we have all been taught? I don't know about you but if I was a betting man I would place my money on Jesus all the way.
We ask questions because we often don't believe the world should look the way it does. We doubt the world's justice and God being in control of a world like ours. A world that seems completely out of control. In such a world of great suffering, desperate greed, and complete inequality why can't we ask Him why? We should have the courage to ask the Lord why. When Jesus got upset and knocked over the money changers tables in the temple, He claims that the "religous" folks have turned the house of the prayer into a "den of thieves" by making profits from selling sacrificial animals to the poor of the day. No doubt at the root of the what Jesus did is the same question: Why are we allowing the rich to exploit the poor in the name of God? Such doubt about the world gives new life to faith because it makes us rise up, push for the changes that are necessary, and flip the tables that harbor injustice.
“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” Matthew 21:12-16 ESV
In my opinion, without doubt, our faith is shallow and rootless. To me, doubt is a sign of a healthy and deep rooted faith, though most of us are taught to believe the complete opposite.
Without doubt most of us live a life of resignation and passivity. I can't find anywhere that we are told to be meek and mild Christians. Christian's without the backbone to stand up for what we know to be right. We are not called to be people who accept the status-quo. We are called to be strong in our faith and ask tough questions of ourselves, others, and especially those in power. Doubt is always there to help us get up off our butts and get moving.
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 ESV
"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46 ESV
Thus the question: Is it a sin to doubt God's presence and love, especially in times of great loss or deep suffering? Who is right-Jesus or the man made laws of faith that we have all been taught? I don't know about you but if I was a betting man I would place my money on Jesus all the way.
We ask questions because we often don't believe the world should look the way it does. We doubt the world's justice and God being in control of a world like ours. A world that seems completely out of control. In such a world of great suffering, desperate greed, and complete inequality why can't we ask Him why? We should have the courage to ask the Lord why. When Jesus got upset and knocked over the money changers tables in the temple, He claims that the "religous" folks have turned the house of the prayer into a "den of thieves" by making profits from selling sacrificial animals to the poor of the day. No doubt at the root of the what Jesus did is the same question: Why are we allowing the rich to exploit the poor in the name of God? Such doubt about the world gives new life to faith because it makes us rise up, push for the changes that are necessary, and flip the tables that harbor injustice.
“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” Matthew 21:12-16 ESV
In my opinion, without doubt, our faith is shallow and rootless. To me, doubt is a sign of a healthy and deep rooted faith, though most of us are taught to believe the complete opposite.
Without doubt most of us live a life of resignation and passivity. I can't find anywhere that we are told to be meek and mild Christians. Christian's without the backbone to stand up for what we know to be right. We are not called to be people who accept the status-quo. We are called to be strong in our faith and ask tough questions of ourselves, others, and especially those in power. Doubt is always there to help us get up off our butts and get moving.
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 ESV
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