Dealing with Doubt

James 1:5 challenged us last Sunday: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. And in what manner should we approach God?  Verse 6 clarifies:  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

James portrays doubt as double-mindedness; it’s like trying to serve two masters:  You need wisdom, but you reserve judgment until the Lord’s leading is plain—and then you’ll decide if you want to go that way or not.  This kind of doubt is confused about who’s in charge.

The problem here isn’t just that we sometimes wonder what God’s up to—we all wonder, and have questions.  James isn’t commanding us to practice mind-control to make sure no intellectual challenge to God ever enters our brains:  “Oh no, for a split second I wondered if it’s all true—now I’m done for!”  That’s not the issue.

The “doubt” James confronts is being ungrounded—and as a result, being tossed and blown between one allegiance and another.  For this spiritual condition, the remedy is “faith”:  “ask in faith.”  In other words, approach God in a posture of humble, respectful trust that’s ready to follow where he leads.

This is quite different from the intellectual doubts and honest ques­tioning that many people, believers included, go through.  In fact, in the process of maturing in faith, it’s necessary to ask hard questions and work through the doubts that arise.  We haven’t understood the truth until we’ve closely examined rival claims.  Blithely accepting what we’re told by others without applying our God-given minds to explore truth-claims and weigh evidence for them is not faith, it’s laziness and poor stewardship of our intellectual capabilities.

Tim Keller has written quite a bit about doubt—see especially his very helpful books, The Reason for God, and Making Sense of God.  He encour­ages us to cross-examine our doubts and make them stand up to scrutiny:  doubt your doubts.  And as you do, you may find that your questions recede and your recog­nition of Christianity’s intellectual coherence expands.