John 20:24–29 (NLT)
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
14 When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. 15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.
16 “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked.
17 One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. 18 And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.[a] So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”
19 Jesus said to them,[b] “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.
He replied, “Since he was a little boy. 22 The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil[c] spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”
26 Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
For most Christians, there’s great comfort in the feeling of choosing a belief system that seems solid, reliable, and for the most part, easily understandable. We don’t wrestle through sleepless nights over questions like…
But what happens when more complex questions rise to the surface of our thoughts and collide with what we thought to be our unshakable faith? When we’re up at night fighting mental battles simple Bible verses don’t easily put to rest?
Doubt is uncomfortable. When it catches us off guard and challenges paradigms we’ve been relying on, it can spiral out of control into feelings of panic. And panic makes us want to quickly snuff out its source.
If you’ve ever tried any of the following quick fixes, you may be aware they either don’t work, or don’t provide long-lasting relief:
Here’s why these strategies don’t help. Each is a way of depending on self to prove who God is. But only God can prove Himself. It makes no sense for us to depend on ouselves to overcome our doubt that we can depend on God. If that sentence feels weird, it’s because it is.
When the Bible says to not doubt (and it does many times), this is not a command to figure out for ourselves how to stop doubting – which usually turns into shoving it down or hiding it under the rug in hopes it will go away. Rather, the call to not doubt is an invitation to enlist God’s help so we can deal with it effectively (John 15:1-8, Matthew 11:28-30, and James 1:5-8).
Here are some ways to stop fighting doubt in our own strength.
While our doubt may catch us off guard, it never catches God off guard. He knows it is reasonable for us to have questions about Him because he understands the following things…
Psalm 103:13-14 reminds us that, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
Every one of the following people have at least one or more accounts of times they doubted God recorded in Scripture:
But in every one of their moments of doubt, God showed profound compassion, mercy, and understanding in the ways He helped them work through their challenging questions. We can be assured of God’s grace and longing to help us when we struggle with tough, but reasonable questions as well.
"And have mercy on those who doubt." Jude 1:22 ESV
1. Are there any complex questions that keep surfacing and causing me to doubt God?
2. Do these questions cause me to distance myself from God or turn to Him for help?
3. What key phrase or prayer can I use to help me turn my doubt over to God to handle? (Ex. "I believe, help my unbelief.")