Continued: OPPOSING & OVERCOMING OUR DOUBTS
2. PRAY FOR PATIENCE & PERSEVERENCE TO OVERCOME YOUR DOUBTS
- very few characters in the Bible faced more perplexing and challenging situations than JOB – a host of questions confronted him that appeared to be unanswerable.
- However, in spite of the loss of property and children, and also the unhelpful and critical words of his disloyal friends, Job ‘did not sin, nor charge God with wrong’, Job chapter 1 verse 22 – patience and perseverance saw him through his doubts and trials.
- James wrote this testimony about him in the New Testament: ‘You have heard of the PERSEVERENCE of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord – that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful’, James chapter 5 verse 11.
- the Old Testament Book that bears his name, ends on an encouraging note: ‘Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before . . . Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning’, Job chapter 42 verses 10 & 12.
- JEREMIAH, an Old Testament prophet, who lived through one of the most distressing periods in the history of the nation of Israel and Judah, did not hold back in expressing his grief and genuine doubts: ‘He (God) has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer’, Lamentations chapter 3 verses 6-8. Indeed, he shed many tears.
- HABAKKUK, another of the Old Testament prophets, faced the same perplexities and doubts that engulfed Jeremiah as Judah faced the might of the Babylonian empire. In his distress, he cried out to God: ‘O Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” and You will not save’, Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 2.
When we express our honest doubts and questions to God we are, therefore, in good company. Let us pray for patience and perseverance to overcome as others have!
To be continued