Doubt Is Not the Enemy

Most people assume doubt disqualifies them. Seekers think, 'I can't become a Christian — I have too many questions.' Believers hide their questions, afraid that admitting them would unravel everything. Either way, the assumption is the same: faith and doubt cannot share a room.

Then there's the father in Mark 9. His son is suffering; he has brought him to Jesus as a last resort. 'If you can do anything,' he says — hardly a confession of great faith. And when Jesus presses him, the man blurts out one of the most human sentences in the Bible: 'I believe. Help my unbelief!' Faith and doubt, in the same breath, from the same heart.

Notice what Jesus does with this contradiction: nothing. No rebuke. No 'come back when you're sure.' He simply heals the boy. Apparently a mustard seed of faith wrapped in a blanket of doubt is enough for Jesus to work with.

The Bible is far more comfortable with doubt than most churches are. Thomas demanded evidence and got it. John the Baptist — in prison, facing death — sent messengers to ask Jesus, 'Are you really the one?' A third of the Psalms are complaints. Scripture's verdict seems to be that doubt brought to God is called honesty, and honesty is something God can work with. The real opposite of faith is not doubt but indifference — never bringing the question at all.

So whatever your version of 'help my unbelief' is, you don't need to resolve it before you approach God. Bring the doubt to him instead of letting it keep you from him. That prayer in Mark 9 — eleven words, half belief and half confusion — was enough. Yours will be too.

Questions about what you just read?