Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Prayers and Doubt

James 1:6-8
Do you ever spend time trying to convince yourself that you believe? You alternate between doubt and faith, doubt and faith, back and forth ad nauseum and getting nowhere. If faith is a boat in a sea of doubt I've had my share of motion sickness.  Thankfully there have been men like C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias and Tim Keller who have helped me find the intellectual justification for my faith. However, there are often times when I cannot seem to feel what my mind accepts as true. 


Asking questions is good. In fact, those that live by the principle "ignorance is bliss" must be very careful to walk around with their eyes closed, humming with their fingers in their ears. This ultimately spells faith disaster in my experience.  However, for those on the outside of Christianity looking in things are different. Questioning seems to be the religion of a large segment of society. For these people claiming to know something is a form of snobbery that ought not be tolerated. Funny, they know you can't know. There's some thick irony there!

But, in my day to day existence, I pray. And, I must come to grips with the balance between faith and doubt because doubt is a prayer killer. James says,
"But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." 
Are there not people who reject the notion of a loving God because he has not "answered" their prayers? To make belief contingent upon a positive answer will never work. Why? because faith must precede the positive answer.For those are waiting to believe until God answers their request, whatever it may be, they will eventually give up. The problem is not God. The problem is with their understanding of prayer.

Do you believe when you pray?

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