FOR YOUR INSPIRATION
When We
Struggle With
Doubt
by Juliane Wiebracht
F
ollowing Jesus seems easy when
everything is going well. Things
don’t even have to be great on the
outside, as long as I have peace on
the inside--with God. But then those times
come. The days when doubt begins to hit me
from side to side; sloshing me this way and
that, until I feel like I have lost my footing
and am swaying precariously to and fro. It is
a terribly insecure place to be. Suddenly the
Bible appears confusing and God seems dis-
tant and difficult to know. I begin to panic,
and feel anxious to fix it- to find the answers
that will perfectly resolve all my questions.
But when the answers don’t come, the dis-
couragement sets in. Like a leech sucking
on my soul. Now taking the risks in serving
Jesus, begin to seem like a disciplined choice
instead of a passionate response. I was
once swimming and frolicking freely in the
waves and now I am paddling against the
current with aching arms and lungs that are
begging for air. What happened? I am not
the only one who has arrived at this lonely
ghost town, and many more will follow me
here. I will begin with my old friend Job,
as he shares his own intimate struggle and
laments:
“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,
and backward, but I do not perceive him;
on the left hand when he is working, I do not
behold him;
he turns to the right hand, but I do not see
him.
But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tried me, I shall come out as
gold.
Job 23:8-10
Job goes forward and backward but
cannot find God. He cannot see Him. Like
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