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| Our Three Primary Needs | ||||||
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| The first principle we must learn if we are to recover from the brokenness caused by troubles in the home is: Depend on God, and not on anyone else, to meet the deepest needs of your personality. Allow this truth to take
hold of your innermost being and you will become a transformed person. Father, I sense that I am on the verge of something big and challenging. Help me to grasp this, for I sense that if I do, I shall become a transformed person. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.
Ephesians 1; 2
Thomas, the Doer Recognize that if you could not doubt, you could not believe. So don't be threatened or intimidated by your doubts. Robert Browning put it like this: "You call for faith: I show you doubt, to prove that faith exists. The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say, if faith overcomes doubt." Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ's strongest disciples. One commentator points out that Thomas, being a twin, must have developed an early independence of judgment that made it possible for him to break with his brother and become a follower of Jesus. This is an assumption, of course, but I think it is a valid one.
It was that independence, perhaps, that led him to reject the testimony of the other disciples when they said, "We have seen the Lord." Jesus did not reject Thomas because of his doubts, but said to him: "Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe" (John
20:27). O God, what a prospect - my faith, at first so tentative, can, through Your illumination and my response, become a driving force. It can not only save me, but send me. May there be no limits! Amen. Matt. 8:1-13; Rom. 10:17; 14:23; Heb. 11:1
Do Your Emotions Take Over? "... the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him ..." (v. 17, RSV) -- For reading & meditation: Psalm 103:1-22 We continue exploring ways in which we can become strong at the broken places caused by deep and disturbing doubts. Another point we should keep in mind in relation to this question of doubt is that some doubts are rooted more in the emotions than in the intellect. Our emotions are an important part of our being, and they can do much to make our lives either miserable or meaningful. When emotions take over, they cause our thinking to waver, so that we can come to faulty conclusions about life. Ask yourself this question now: am I a person who is ruled more by my emotions than by my intellect? If you are, then it is likely that your doubts are rooted more in your feelings than in your mind. Many years ago, a Christian university student came to me complaining that he had serious doubts about the inspiration and reliability of Scripture. As I counseled him, I heard the Spirit say, "This is not an intellectual doubt, but an emotional one." I explored with him the area of his feelings, and he confessed to me that he could never remember a time in his life when he ever felt that he was loved. When the emotional problem was resolved, his doubts vanished of their own accord. His problem was not intellectual, but emotional. Reason and emotion are both important in life, but decisions, especially decisions about the Christian life, must be built not on what we feel to be true but on what we know to be true. PRAYER: My Father and my God, help me trace my problem to its roots and meet me at the point of my deepest need. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen. FURTHER STUDY:
Decide to Believe "... when he asks, he must believe and not doubt ..." (v. 6) -- For reading & meditation: James 1:2-12 Another important principle to employ when dealing with honest doubts is this: Make a conscious decision to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. Living an effective Christian life, as we have been seeing, depends on how willing we are to exercise our wills in favor of God and His Word. To do this requires faith in the fact that God has revealed Himself in His Son and through the Scriptures. As a teenager, I had many doubts about the Scriptures but, one night, I made a conscious decision to accept them as the eternal and inerrant Word of God. Notice, I said "a conscious decision." I decided by an action of my will to doubt my doubts and believe my beliefs. I then found an astonishing thing. Both doubt and faith are like muscles - the more you flex them, the stronger they become. I had been using the muscles of doubt to a great degree, but unfortunately, I had failed to exercise the muscles of faith. When I made up my mind to accept the truth of God's Word by faith, muscles I never thought I had began to function. Now, many years later, those muscles are developed to such a degree that I find, where God is concerned, it is easier to believe Him than to doubt Him. I trace the beginnings of my own spiritual development to that day long ago, when I decided to take what one theologian called "the leap of faith." Perhaps today might become a similar day of decision for you. Decide to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. Now! PRAYER:
Dealing Positively with Doubt "... they ... examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (v. 11) -- For reading & meditation: Acts 17:1-15 What do we do when we find ourselves assailed by honest doubt? Well, first we must recognize that doubts can be valuable if they motivate us to search deep and long for the answers. Perhaps it was this thought that led Samuel Coleridge to say, "Never be afraid of doubt... if you have the disposition to believe." Unfortunately, there is very little sympathy given to those who doubt in most evangelical churches. Doubters are about as welcome in some congregations as a ham sandwich in a synagogue! It was because of the lack of concern shown in many churches toward those with honest doubts that two American missionaries, Francis and Edith Schaeffer, set up their ministry in a remote Swiss village. They established a center for those with doubts about their faith and called it L'Abri, which is French for "The Shelter." Hundreds made their way there over the years, and came back with their doubts resolved. Have you ever heard of Frank Morrison? He was an agnostic who, many years ago, set out to demonstrate the validity of his doubts about the resurrection of Christ. The more he looked into the facts, however, the more convinced he became that Christ actually did rise from the dead.
Truth - in the Inner Parts "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ..." (v. 6) -- For reading & meditation: Psalm 51:1-19 What do we do when we find ourselves assailed by honest doubts? Firstly, we must learn to distinguish between honest doubts and defensive doubts. Many of the doubts that trouble Christians concerning aspects of the Christian faith are made half-consciously into a screen to hide some moral weakness or failure.
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Print Article Be a Person of Your Word by Mark Brazee Author Bio Today's Devotion Excerpted From: 
by Mark Brazee Available in the CFAITH Store "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an
oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Heb. 6:17-18). Hebrews 6:18 says it is impossible for God to lie. He doesn't have the capacity to be dishonest or to fail to keep His Word. God and His Word cannot
be separated. As God's children, we should also be people of our word. Now, sometimes a situation arises that makes it impossible to keep our word to someone, even though our intentions are good. With the exception of these extreme cases, we need to be people of our word. If we can't believe in our own word, our faith will never work, because
faith is believing that what we say will come to pass. Our faith has nothing to stand on when our word is no good. We never know what to believe. As humans, we often have to choose whether we're going to tell the truth or "fudge" just a little bit. The flesh wants to rise up and say whatever it takes to keep us out of trouble. But compromising
the truth even in little ways will short-circuit our faith. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul said, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection…." Well, if the apostle Paul had to keep his body under, we certainly do too! As long as we have human bodies, we'll have to keep them under the control of our spirits so we can be people of our word.
Confession: I watch my words carefully and speak only the truth. Therefore, I can expect to walk in God's best. God's Word is truth, and as I speak His words, His truth is produced in me! od, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable
things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Heb. 6:17-18). Hebrews 6:18 says it is impossible for God to lie. He doesn't have the capacity to be dishonest or to fail to keep His Word. God and His Word cannot be separated. As God's
children, we should also be people of our word. Now, sometimes a situation arises that makes it impossible to keep our word to someone, even though our intentions are good. With the exception of these extreme cases, we need to be people of our word. If we can't believe in our own word, our faith will never work, because faith is believing that
what we say will come to pass. Our faith has nothing to stand on when our word is no good. We never know what to believe. As humans, we often have to choose whether we're going to tell the truth or "fudge" just a little bit. The flesh wants to rise up and say whatever it takes to keep us out of trouble. But compromising the truth even in little
ways will short-circuit our faith. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul said, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection…." Well, if the apostle Paul had to keep his body under, we certainly do too! As long as we have human bodies, we'll have to keep them under the control of our spirits so we can be people of our word. Confession: I
watch my words carefully and speak only the truth. Therefore, I can expect to walk in God's best. God's Word is truth, and as I speak His words, His truth is produced in me!