“Doubts” are one of the evil’ one’s weapons that seeks to tempt the follower of Christ to yield to and embrace, and in doing so reject the Truth of the Bible and God. And at times a believer may choose to believe the lie and with that as Scripture says “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” One “doubt” that comes to the mind of a believer is to “doubt” that their salvation, that it is not genuine, not secure, eternal. It is not secure, or knowable or certain. So the poor believer is like a cork, a piece of wood in the wild waves of a raging sea, that is engulfed and thrown from side to side, no stability, no security, no assurance. The “Doubt,” embraced is an attack ultimately on the character of God and on the Scriptures, to accuse Him that He cannot be trusted, this is the goal of the evil one to get you to sin against God, and keep you pre-occupied with self and not the Savior and His business-{Matt 6:33.}. So the evil one seeks to tempt you with a “doubt” to question God, can He be relied upon, is what He says reliable, trustworthy?
To yield to the Doubts leads to
Double-minded,
Despair and ultimately
Dishonoring God.
It can be tormenting for the person, mental torture. One minute thinking you are saved, then something happens and like a house of cards comes tumbling down and emotionally, and this is what instability of mind does, it can unleash a torrid of emotions that can blind one to the work of Jesus Christ and instead focus the person on their performance and as Paul said, “And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”-{Romans 7:18}. And yet in embracing the doubt the enemy tempts and we accept and turn inward and from there often spiral downwards in turmoil emotionally and mentally! Is there any hope, not the “hope” of uncertainty but there is the “Hope” of certainty from God from His Word!
Paul in writing Romans 5:1-11 is for the believers to have their faith anchored and their confidence founded and grounded in God’s Assurance of Eternal Security. He has Justified them, they as a result have Peace with God, access to God, Standing in Grace, Exulting in future Glory, Exulting in tribulations Knowing God has a purpose in developing us spiritually, the Love of God, the Gift of the Holy Spirit, Saved from the wrath of God, reconciled to God, and Joying in God and all these “through the LORD Jesus Christ.” This is God’s assurance of eternal salvation. The salvation He imparts is forever. It is not dependent on my or your “performance” but on the perfect acceptable performance of the LORD Jesus and the Grace of God that has been lavished upon us all “through the LORD Jesus Christ!”
But what happens if we choose {and it is a choice} to embrace the “Doubt,” or out of ignorance to God’s Word what is the result if we do not believe we can know for certain that our salvation is forever? If this is our thinking then …we wrongly believe,…
I HAVE NO – ASSURANCE OF MY SALVATION
BUT GOD… wants You To Have Assurance; “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. “-{1 John 5:13}.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, “-{ 1 John 1:12}
” but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. “-{John 20:31}.
“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes,resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation“-{Romans 10:9-10}
” Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. “-{Hebrews 7:27}
I HAVE NO ASSURANCE OF – FORGIVENESS.
“Doubts” arise when we look to our ‘performance’ rather than Christ’s. We look to ourselves for “perfection,” rather than His perfect work on our behalf!
BUT GOD, SAYS..
” Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,through whom also we have obtained our Access,{introduction} by faith into this grace in which we stand;“-{Romans 5:1-2}
God has justified us. That is as Judge He has declared by an act that we are “Not Guilty,” and clothed in the righteousness of Christ “through our LORD Jesus Christ,” who took our place, our sin on Himself. He died for our sin so we would not die in our sin and reconciled us to God. We have “Peace with God.” Peace, here is not emotional but positional.The war is over. God has declared us not guilty, right with Him, and at peace forever! We stand in grace, no longer in condemnation but standing in full acceptance and Divine favor forever, and sin cannot separate us as He has dealt with our sin against Him and the penalty of sin.
“… where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”- Romans 5:20}
“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.“- {Mark 2:9-12}
“He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.“-{Col 2:13-14}. The word, “canceled’ means to “erase,” obliterate. No record of our sin as He through His blood has taken it on Himself and erased it completely and eternally! This is grounds to Worship Him! “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,O Lord, who could stand?v But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.“-{Psalm 130:3-4}
” For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”-{Heb 7:12}. When He says He will not “remember…” It does not mean He has “insomnia” but it means He will no longer hold our sin against us, as He held our sin against His Son once and for all! ” so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. “-{Hebrews 9:28}
“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”-{Psalm 103:12}
“To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood “-{Rev 1:5}. Note, what the LORD Jesus has done, He continuously loves us is the way it is grammatically and evidenced in freeing us from our sins. How did He do it? “…By His Blood.” What He has done, not you or me, but the LORD Jesus. Focus on Him and what He has done and says!
” Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”-{Hebrews 7:27}. How long is He able to save you? Until your next sin? No! But “Forever!” Eternally so. Glory!
I HAVE NO ASSURANCE OF – GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ME.
“Doubts” arise and followed by accusations that God doesn’t care for you.”Doubts” arise when you sin, “how could He love me NOW?”
” So you come up with a means other than God’s way for you, to try “appease” God, get back in His good books, that He may “love” you again. You try harder to impress Him, you make greater pledges to try prove to HIM YOUR SINCERITY. You wonder have you really repented? You confess the sin again, and again and again, and wonder if He heard you, and were you sincere enough? You may even wonder if you were really sorry and repented “enough? and if so why is there no tears. Shouldn’t there be tears? You fall back into a “works mentality,” self- works, trying to somehow convince Him by your efforts He should accept you based on your sincerity, your works, your appeals. Problem? Your appeal is to self and not …His Son! “…but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.“-{1 John 1:7-9}
When The LORD Jesus came He offered Himself once forever as our SACRIFICE TO SATISFY God with His Sacrifice and make a way for all who come to Him in true repentance towards God and faith in the LORD Jesus will be fully accepted by HIS WORK alone. In the book of Hebrews where the old system from the Old testament is contrasted with the Final and definitive work of the Lord Jesus which the people were having to deal with, the writer says,” For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very [a]form of things, ]can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in ]those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. “-{Hebrews 10;1-4}.
To trust any other way but God’s way made exclusively through His Son, His Blood is to ignore and despise God, an attack on Him and His Son’s work! So all the efforts to ty “appease’ God is to fall back in an old mind set of self-works to try merit His Love for you. And it is an affront to God and it is to say, He means well but cannot be trusted wither by what His Son did or what HE SAYS IN His Word, I have my own way of dealing with sin! No wonder you are confused, same with me when we fall back on self merit!
You “doubt” His unconditional love for you and put “conditions” on His love which are your own making, and suffocating if you are honest. Neither you nor anyone can keep up to the “standard” you have made! So, you live an emotional roller coaster life, “He loves me, He loves me not,” based on how you “feel,” how you “perform,” and if difficulties come into your life you see it as His displeasure towards you, rather than His using them to spiritually develop you as Romans 5;3-5 teaches. “Doubts” about His love for you, that you never “feel” you can measure up, you strive for His “acceptance,” and trying to “earn” His love.
BUT GOD SAYS,
YOU ARE ALREADY ACCEPTED IN HIS SON;
” He hath made us accepted in the beloved.”– {Eph 1;6}. Our eternal acceptance is in our relationship with God through our LORD Jesus His “Beloved.” Romans 1:7 says we are “The Beloved of God.” As The Father loves His Son, so too HE LOVES YOU because of His Son!
NO CONDEMNATION;
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”- {Romans 8:1-2}. Present tense, no condemnation for you, “In Christ.” He bore all your condemnation on the cross.
HIS LOVE IS EVERLASTING;
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with loving-kindness.“- {Jeremiah 31:3}.
HIS LOVE IS CONTINUOUS;
“and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood”-{Rev 1:5}. His love is not stop-start. But is continuous!
HIS LOVE IS GREAT;
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)“-{Ephesians 2;4-5}
HIS LOVE IS UNBREAKABLE;
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? … But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“- {Romans 8:31,37-39}
HE LOVED YOU BEFORE YOU WERE SAVED;
” But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. “-{Romans 5:8} How do you know God loves you? “Christ died for us!”
HIS LOVE IS KNOWN THROUGH THE CROSS OF CHRIST.
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us;”-{1 John 3:16}
GOD ASSURES YOU OF HIS LOVE
” and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”-{Romans 5:5}.
I HAVE NO ASSURANCE OF – HEAVEN,
Doubts cause us to think such as,” I’m afraid to die as I am not sure where I will go when I die.” The uncertainty,the fears, anxieties it creates, the troubled heart.
BUT GOD SAYS,
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.“- {John 14:2-3}. “Do not let…” It means grammatically, “Stop allowing yourself to be troubled…” Jesus is saying you have the power to stop living like this. But how? The word “troubled” means “agitated…to be in a state of confusion.” And the way out is to believe in God, believe in Jesus… It means “keep trusting…”Jesus…Keep Trusting His Promise of Provision of Heaven for you.
“we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.“- {2 Cor 5:8}.
“Doubts,” are not new but by faith you need to RECOGNIZE the purpose is to distract your mind from devotion to LOVING GOD WITH ALL OF YOUR…MIND“-{Luke 10:27}. Doubts arise where? In you shins? Big toe? No, in your Thought life, to distract from devotion to Him and so RECOGNIZE the attack is to seek to tempt you to doubting God, His Word, and distract you from all God has done for you and has for you “IN CHRIST.”
DOUBTS Tempts you to be self occupied and not Christ centered. Think about that! Who do the doubts leave you with, Self or the Savior? One leads to despair, uncertainty, the other to worship and praise and trusting God!
The “THOUGHT” comes to you, take it captive. Philippians 4:8 would be a good verse to memorize, mediate and apply.
“Finally, brethren,
whatever is true,
whatever is honorable,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is of good repute,
if there is any excellence
and if anything worthy of praise,
dwell on these things.” Note what you are to DWELL your thinking on! TRUTH not lies!
When a “thought” comes take it and examine it by His Word. Ask, is it true of God? Is it true of who I am In Christ? Is it Lovely? Is it worthy of praise…. etc… if NOT THEN REJECT IT!
RECOGNIZE– the Purpose of the Doubts
REJECT THEM
REPLACE – WITH TRUTH -{Phil 4:8-9}
RENEW YOUR MIND CONTINUALLY WITH HIS WORD-{Rom 12:2; Psalm 1:2}
REPEAT!
“DOUBTS” ARE TEMPTATION. – But God has made provision for us in any and all temptations whose goal is to sin against God by acting on the temptation!
” No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it “- {1 COR 10:13 }. GOD IS FAITHFUL WHO WILL PROVIDE THE WAY OUT ..SO YOU NEED NOT SIN AGAINST HIM!
You win over your “Doubts” by immersing yourself in His Word. Often the problem is we listen to our thoughts rather than listening and applying God’s Word!
MEDITATE ON HIS WORD
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.”-{Psalm 1:2}
Take a verse and think on it, word for word, phrase by phrase. A good way to help you do so is perhaps put a verse on your bathroom mirror, and as you daily brush your teeth look at it word for word, phrase for phrase, as you do that everyday for a month, before you know it, you will have memorized it and slowly but surely you will be able throughout the day be able to think on it, incorporate it into your prayers, praise and making decisions based on his revealed Word and in doing so be living wise. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.“- {Matt 7:24}.The “rock” is His Word, which is stable, secure foundation compared in the next verse to the person who builds their life on anything OTHER THAN the Word of God He compares it to “sand.” SAND is not firm, you wouldn’t build a house on it, would you? Why not? Because there is no stability. So to build your life on anything other than the Word of God Jesus says is “foolish!’-{v29}. Do you want to be “wise” or “foolish?” Which are your thoughts and actions revealing? That’s not to make you feel bad, you already are as it is , but to encourage you, you don’t have to give way and allow these demonic {that’s where they ultimately originate from} doubtful thoughts to take over your life and effect you emotionally bringing turmoil, uncertainty, a state of confusion to you.
Choose what He says over what you “feel” as your authority and base your choices on What He says!
As you memorize and meditate, even if initially it is only a few words that you remember from the verse, don’t become disheartened, its not a race but a RELATIONSHIP with God you are developing and it will be “FUEL” for your faith and also for the HOLY Spirit to have Truth to bring back to your mind even years later. Once it goes in HE CAN BRING BACK To your MIND.
DO HIS WORD;
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”-{James 1:22}
ENCOURAGEMENT AND HOPE COME THROUGH HIS WORD FOR YOU;
” For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”-{Romans 15;14}.
THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL TEACH YOU;
“He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”-{John 16:13}.
CHRIST REVEALS HIMSELF THROUGH HIS WORD;
” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. “-{Luke 24:27}
Doubt’s will come but remember you do not have to submit or dwell on them. You have the power to choose what you DWELL on! It has been said, you cannot stop a bird from flying over your head but but you can stop it from taking it’s time and building a nest in your hair. You can’t stop thoughts coming to you but like not giving a bird TIME to build the nest in your hair, don’t give these “doubtful,” thoughts the TIME. Remember the verse from Philippians 4:8 what to “DWELL “on ? Dwell on truth. Keep thinking and thinking and thinking on the TRUTH. And His promises is, ““If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.“-{John 8:31-32}. Objective truth Liberates. Subjective, feelings can tie you up in knots and lead to building your life on sand, and been tossed and turned as you are building your life not on His Word, but on “sand!”
Remember, what He says is all that counts! Count on what He says!
God will meet you,
BE ASSURED;
” For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”-{Phil 1:6}.
Take your “Doubts” to Him and TAKE AWAY His Truth with you and keep believing Him and your faith will be strengthened and one day God will use this for good as you will be able to share with others about the Doubts you went through too and how God met you and His Word as your foundation helped you to THINK right and DO RIGHT…