Day 15 - Dedicate Your Doubts by Pastor Christina Noe

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6).

As I sought the Lord for direction for this particular moment of devotion, I quickly heard “dedicate your doubts!” I promptly doubted I had heard this from the Lord! As I pondered this more, the profoundness of His leading moved me. It is only natural to be fully convinced of our own thinking. Scripture confirms this, “Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord knows the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2). All of humanity is sure of their thoughts. Of course, there will always be unsure or indecisive people and yet even these people will allow their thought to dictate their decisions, it just takes them an annoyingly long time to make those decisions. Any other type A’s out there?

 We are convinced in our own thought process; so much so, we never doubt our own doubts. Questioning our doubts isn’t my original thought, Tim Keller is known for instructing his congregation to do so.  But what does doubting our own doubts mean? I believe Keller’s motivation for the challenge was in relation to the foundational elements of our faith: God’s existence, the need for salvation, and the reliability of the scriptures. But I do not think this idea should stop there. How often do we doubt if we are in the right jobs, relationships, right place or <fill in the blank>? We hear God prompting us to pray for someone or talk to a stranger about His love and goodness and then we think, “Did God really say that?” We take little risk because we doubt He is actually leading us. What if we spent more time obeying quickly than debating if God is actually speaking?

If you find yourself doubting God, His promises, or His direction for your life, I suggest you actually dedicate, give wholly, your doubts to Him. It is easy to see doubts as the line in the sand, placing the doubter and God on opposing sides until God somehow proves Himself. The pride in this process is astounding, and yet we all do it, but even still, God is patient and gentle with us despite our lack. The practical habit for handing our doubts to God and trusting Him to lead us into deeper understanding is found in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Let 2023 be a year where our thoughts are captured, given to God and returned to us refined!

Pray this with me:

God!
Refresh my understanding of who I am and who You are! Take my doubts about myself, about You, about this world and align them with Your perfect plan. Renew my mind! Amen.
 
God will be faithful to us as we seek Him!
-Pastor Christina