Q: #28. Is it ok to doubt God?
A: When I first considered this, I failed to see a distinction between questioning God and doubting God. However, we CAN ask God questions without doubting Him. As we showed in our previous question, many great people in the Bible asked God questions, but if we look at those questions, they did not reflect doubt or unbelief in God.
We cross into doubt or unbelief when we:
Don’t trust God
Fail to believe He will answer
Fail to believe His answers to the questions we ask
Question His ability to do something
Don’t do what he asks us to for some reason
Put Him to foolish tests in order to believe (Mt 4:7)(Lk 4:12)(Deut 6:16)
Question His motives or character
Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). We cannot enter into God’s rest unless we believe (Heb 4:1-9).
Doubt and unbelief comes from an evil heart (Heb 3:12), a slow heart (Lk 24:25), and a hard heart (Mk 16:14)(Acts 19:9). It comes from a desire to seek honor from men rather than God (Jn 5:41-44). Satan is a cause of it (Jn 8:43-47)(2 Cor 4:4)(Lk 8:12). Also, we cannot believe at all if we don’t belong to Christ in the first place (Jn 10:26).
God showed His displeasure with doubt and unbelief all through the Bible. Because of doubt and unbelief:
Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world and were cast out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3).
Moses caused the Lord’s anger to burn (Ex 4:10-16).
Moses and Aaron were not allowed to go into the Promised Land (Num 20:12).
The Israelites were not allowed to go into the Promised Land (Heb 3:16-19).
The Israelite spies were killed by a plague (Num 14:36-38).
Christ could not perform many miracles in Nazareth (Mt 13:58)(Mk 6:5-6).
Peter sank while walking on water (Mt 14:31).
The disciples couldn’t cast out demons (Mt 17:17-21).
Zechariah was made mute until 8 days after John’s birth (Lk 1:20).
The Jews were rejected by God (Rom 11:20).
The people of Jericho perished (Heb 11:31).
Jesus said if we have faith, and do not doubt, we can move mountains (Mt 21:21)(Mt 17:20)(Mk 11:23), and, “all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mk 9:23). Let us not be as children tossed to and fro (Eph 4:14), but rather, let us be unwavering in our belief and grow strong in faith as Abraham did (Rom 4:20). If you are unstable in your faith, beware of false teachers who will try and entice or seduce you (2 Pet 2:14). If you are double-minded, purify your heart (Jas 4:8).
Keep in mind this important verse:
(Heb 10:23) Let us hold fast to the profession of our hope without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
If we go to God in prayer, asking and BELIEVING, we will receive (Mt 21:22)(Mk 11:24).
*** (Note: If we ask in accordance with His will (1 Jn 5:14), and we are not asking for something that is consuming on our lusts (Jas 4:3))
(Jas 1:6-7) But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. (7) For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
Christian friend, if you struggle with unbelief, humbly fall before the Lord and cry out as the father did in (Mk 9:23) saying, “Lord I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
We may not always understand “why” God does things, but we should NEVER waver in our belief, or doubt Him because we fail to understand. Ultimately, God is the potter and we are the clay (Rom 9:20-24). He has the right to do with us as He wishes.
(Rom 9:20) … O man, who art thou that repliest (disputes with, talks back to, or criticizes) against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?