some positive side effects of doubts…

many people think that doubt is unhealthy, but it isn’t always.

actually doubts can produce some positive side effects if we take steps toward resolving them. it’s like an immunization. you get an immunization to help your body fight off the future disease. what they do is, through the shots they give you, they give you a little bit of that disease. your body reacts to that little bit of disease and builds up antibodies so if you’re ever exposed to that disease your body will be able to fight it off before it takes hold and causes real problems. your body is actually stronger from the experience of having had a bit of that disease injected in the first place.

and when you’re infected with doubt, if you respond to it by seeking answers to your questions, you can emerge stronger than ever in your faith. your faith can be confirmed once more and it can give you a new confidence in dealing with other doubts that come up in the future.

tasting a little bit of doubt can deeper your faith. it can give you a hardier, more enduring, more resilient faith. gary parker said in the book the gift of doubt, “if faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? in my own pilgrimage, if i have to choose between a faith that has stared doubt in the eye and made it blink, or a naïve faith that has never known the firing line of faith, i will choose the former every time.”

i want a faith that has looked doubt in the eye and made it blink. i don’t want a faith that shrinks back and is afraid to get in the firing line of faith. i know my faith is going to be stronger having been tested by questions.

a good biblical example is doubting thomas. having checked out personally the evidence himself for the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST he responds by saying in john 20:28 (niv), my LORD and my GOD! then his faith was driven so deep into his soul, by having personally checked out the evidence of the resurrection, that he spent the rest of his life declaring that it was true, that JESUS was the one and only SON of GOD.

i hope that doubt looks a little different to us now that we’ve looked at what it is. i want to reemphasize the fact that even though doubt is common, even though it’s not unforgivable, it’s still very dangerous. if you leave it unchecked it can do great damage to your faith.

just a thought from the front porch…