Seeking Doubt

Often times when we are faced with something that puts us out of our comfort zone, we begin to doubt and we begin to look for strength and comfort in anything but God. When we are put in those uncomfortable situations, we need to remember to look to God, otherwise we will not stand.

In Matthew 14, Peter trusts Jesus and steps out of the boat to walk on the water. Peter had the faith to do it, but doubted Jesus had him in the midst of it. How often do we have the faith to start something, but not have the faith that God will see us through it? Instead of staying fixed on Him, Peter looked at the circumstances. It's easy to be in the midst of something and look at the severity of a circumstance and allow fear to make us lose sight of the One who is holding us up. We begin to magnify the circumstance and doubt God's ability. When we magnify our problems and circumstances, in our minds, God shrinks. When we magnify anything but God, we believe He is smaller and unable. It's not that our circumstance doesn't matter or that it isn't big, it's whether or not we believe God is bigger. Not only does looking at our circumstances make us doubt and mentally shrink God and His ability. But when we look within ourselves, we find the same thing happens.

In Exodus, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells him to go free the Israelites. God lays out the entire plan for Moses and even still, Moses looks within himself and says

"Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

-Exodus 4:10

We are so often like Moses. We look within ourselves for the ability and strength to accomplish something and we forget that we serve a God who is all knowing and all powerful and considers who He calls. We think that when He calls us to something, we are unqualified, but do we ever consider that He already considered who you are? He knows you, all of you. He called you, because He wants to use you as a vessel for Him. God doesn't want us to consider our strength or lack thereof, He wants us to look to Him and say "I am able, because He is able." It is Him in us and if we don't get that, we will always feel disqualified and incapable, because without Him, that's what we are. When we don't factor God into the equation, all we see is our insignificance and weaknesses. But when we look to Him and His Word, we see that our weaknesses makes His power perfect. Where we fall short, He fulfills.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

-2 Corinthians 12:9

Moses felt ineloquent with his speech, God used him anyways to free the Israelites and lead them and to speak to Pharaoh with his hardened heart. Peter doubted and denied Jesus and God still used him for His glory. It's in the stories of weakness that God's glory, grace, and power are seen the most. He doesn't call us out of our weakness, He calls and uses us within our weakness. Moses spoke, not because he wanted to, but because he was obedient and relied on God being with him.

We need to stop seeking doubt and trusting God's guidance. Stop looking around at the circumstances or within ourselves for reasons to say no or to fear, but rather trust Gods yes. Doubting ourselves is really us believing God is disqualified, because we are believing He can't use us or our circumstances.