Instead of Doubting God, Try Doubting Your Doubts
By Michael Kelley
Jeremiah had every reason to doubt God. He had seen the Babylonians sack the city of God, Jerusalem, in 586 BC. The temple of God was destroyed along with the city. The people were either killed or sent into exile. The Book of Lamentations, which Jeremiah wrote in the aftermath, is a book of brief about the circumstances of God’s people.
Now to be sure, the devastation had not come out of nowhere. For centuries, God had been warning His people to turn from their idolatry. Prophet after prophet had urged the people to repent, and yet time after time the idolatry continued. Until God allowed it to continue no more.
So judgment came, and it came down hard. The markers of God’s blessing were gone - the people had no land. No temple. Nothing they had trusted in as the evidence of God’s favor. And surely they were left with many doubts:
Who are we now, as a people?
Is God still with us?
Can we ever come back from this?
What is going to happen?
Now it’s very likely you’ve never been in a situation just like this, but perhaps you can relate to the doubts. All of us can, because when things just don’t out the way we think they should, when life seems overwhelming, one of the things we are most prone to do is to start to doubt. And to doubt God.
Where is God in this situation?
What is He doing?
Does He love me?
Did I get it all wrong?
And to make matters worse, it seems like the more we dwell on our circumstances the stronger the doubts become.
We get inside the echo chamber of our own heads, and the questions and fear and anxiety gets louder and louder.
But Jeremiah shows us a different way. When he looked at the devastation around him and was tempted to doubt God, he instead chose to doubt his doubts.
After two and a half chapters of lament, of acknowledging the very real human suffering all around him, Jeremiah turns a corner:
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him” (Jer. 3:19-24).
Among other things from these verses, notice first of all that Jeremiah did not deny the reality of what was happening to him. The suffering was real. The pain was actual. He remembered it all.
Yet…
Yet he also realized that he was the loudest voice in his own mind. And he had a choice about what he would doubt. He could doubt the goodness and love and wisdom of the Lord, or he could doubt his own doubts. He chose the latter, and in choosing the latter, he took an active role in his own mind and heart. He spoke to himself and refocused his attention.
Friends, there may be all kinds of reasons for you to doubt today. But perhaps you might consider the object of your doubt. Instead of doubting the Lord and His trustworthiness, perhaps it’s your own doubt that cannot be trusted. After all - who has a better track record? The Lord or our own selves?
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
