It’s been a year!
You could read sentence that with: exaggeration; exasperation; excitement; or even accomplishment.
For me, on “this side” of 2020, I’ll claim it as an a sense of accomplishment….it’s been a year since God laid it on my heart to write a book!
Somedays, I feel nowhere closer to accomplishing that than I did a year ago.
Other days, with a little perspective, I can see all that God has done!
Most days, I still doubt that I’m supposed to being do this at all!
And then I remember! I remember how God specifically told me to clean out my office, make room on a desk and gave me the word “WRITE” for the year 2020. Now, since it’s been a year, I can see more words on a page than I had a year ago. Yet, I still doubt.
And WHY DO I DOUBT??? Why do I doubt that I know wholly (and holy!) what God has called me to do? I doubt because I forget to remember.
Read that again. I doubt because I forget to remember!
I hate it when I forget to remember something. The Israelites tho…they were good at remembering….remembering the day they came out of Egypt (Exodus 13:3); remembering the Lord, their God (Deut 8); they even remember when God gave his people victory over the Philistines and set up a stone on the victory hill to remember how God had saved, and helped them…lest they forget (1 Samuel 7:12).
(I’m breaking out in song with you right now...”here I raise my ebenezer, hitherby they help I’ve come….come thou font…”). LOL
It is in my forgetfulness that I doubt! Even if I doubt, I have to remember.
I have to choose to remember God’s faithfulness and goodness.
It is in my forgetfulness that I doubt! Even if I doubt, I have to remember God’s faithfulness and goodness! ~Shannan Cloud
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And so, what if your doubt could lead you to deeper faith?
Even if you are a believer, you are also a doubter. Or maybe, just maybe, someone needs to give you the permission to embrace your doubts! You wrestle with many doubts about your faith. You wonder if God has a calling for you. You second guess the leading of the Holy Spirit. You struggle to know if what you believe God is asking of you is a coincidence, a thought of your own doing, or the actual leading and moving of the Holy Spirit.
Did God really say that?
Did I really hear that?
Did God really call me to do that?
What if you were equipped to examine and meet those doubts, one by one as they arise? In doing so, you replace your doubts with remembering who God is; who He has always been.
Even if you question who God is, you discover the heart of God through scripture.
Even if you ignore God’s voice, He still hears you.
Even if you doubt what He is calling you to do, you can trust His Word.
Even if you disobey God, He forgives you and offers second chances full of grace.
Even if you quit ministry, He is still your faithful, loving Savior.
What’s your “even if…?”
With so many doubts, there has to be some way to use them for our good! How do we shift from lingering in our doubts to living in our faith?
We remember! Shifting from doubt to faith involves remembering! At the heart of doubt, is the act of remembering God’s faithfulness. Even if you doubt, you have to choose to remember your faith.
Shifting from doubt to faith involves remembering! At the heart of doubt, is the act of remembering God’s faithfulness. Even if you doubt, you have to choose to remember your faith. ~Shannan Cloud
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In the midst of doubt, choosing to remember God’s previous acts of faith in your life is pivotal. You have to choose to remember; remember God’s goodness; God’s faithfulness; God’s trustworthiness.
It is in the act of remembering, that your doubts draw you closer to God and your faith is deepened and it moves you forward in your faith. So, the next time you begin to doubt what God is asking of you; or you doubt His goodness; or you doubt His will or His promises…do this one thing: REMEMBER! Remember what He’ done for you!
It is in the act of remembering, that your doubts draw you closer to God and your faith is deepened and it moves you forward in your faith. ~Shannan Cloud
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Write it down – every day write 1 thing God did for you that day! Make it like a marker the Israelites used with stones. and write down where and how God acted on your behalf. And then, on those days, when you forget to remember, you can point back and say, “LOOK! THERE! That is what God is doing for me!”
You see….I told you your doubts could turn into faith – I mean because…..
If graves can turn into gardens, then doubt can turn into faith.
If graves can turn into gardens, then doubt can turn into faith! ~ Shannan Cloud
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