Bible Reading Num_14:11
What's your favorite brand of weed killer? Mine is "Roundup." It seems to work more quickly and completely than anything else I've ever tried... not saying I've tried much, mind you. I'm no gardner. But one of the things that I've found with using weed killer is that it kills everything else, too. You have to be careful with it when there's a week you want dead because it's choking out the plants you want to thrive.
Doubt (unbelief) is a spiritual weed that seems to keep cropping up in our lives. We need to kill it. It is the most unnecessary, disappointing, and insulting of all sins in our hearts. It really offends our Lord, who neither deserves it, nor can stand it. How it must crowd out our relationship with Him... It must be cruel to Him for us to doubt after all He's given to us to feed our faith.
But let's use the Bible as our weed killer, lest we kill more than the weed of doubt - lest we kill the weed of faith, too.
- Ignorance. The weed of faith can be killed by ignorance - of God's love and power, of God's past work on your behalf. Not remembering what He has done will help doubt grow and kill faith.
- Superstition. The weed of faith is often killed by misplaced faith. It is God, not some talisman or superstitious chant/ritual that gives us strength and purpose.
- Busy-ness. The weed of faith is killed by a lack of time to properly commune with the Lord - because you are too busy.
- Materialism. The weed of faith is killed by learning to trust money to solve your problems rather than trusting the Lord. Money often creates more problems than it solves.
Yes, there are many things that will keep our faith from growing - even if we think we've killed doubt. How provoked do you think our Lord is when we let that happen?
PRAY: Dear Lord, forgive me for provoking you by letting my faith in you die. Fill me with your Word that I may not be guilty of ignorance, superstition, busyness, or materialism. Rather, let me be filled with your Spirit, for Your purposes, and confident of your presence. Help me to continually walk by faith and not by sight, never to doubt or forget that YOU are my Savior, and no one else.
In Christ's name, Amen!
Thank you Greg! I've been having a lot of trouble with doubts for quite a long time. I'm still working through some very major ones, even tho I'm 67 yrs old!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll use the 'Roundup' to spray them away when they appear in my mind! My affirming motto is 'Of course I can.'--Too often I see myself saying 'I can't'--so-SQUIRT!!!