The Missing Link: From Doubt to HopeSample

Day 1: Doubt

Having spent most of my life in the church, it has become very clear to me that Doubt is not one of the fruits of the spirit. There is no shortage of sermons, books, videos, you name it, that provides us with tools to trust God 'more' and doubt 'less.'

But what do you do when your head-knowledge is not transforming your heart to receive the comfort you need to have hope instead of doubt?

About three years after my youngest son was born, we hit a huge financial wall. During that time:

• Our home went into foreclosure
• Our family car broke down and started leaking intense oil
• The fridge and dryer stopped working
• The huge metal chimney cover was blown off and carried several feet across the roof of our house only to smash into the windshield of, what was at the time, our only current working car. And this specific incident happened while my husband and I came home, for a couple hours, from the hospital where our son was for the  5th day. 
• and to top it all off, I was walking through a custody battle with my two oldest children's father. 

Just to name a few things. 

The level of physical and spiritual attack was intense. As one challenge was met with another, I wish I could say that I had the perfect Christian response, but I didn’t. I cried a lot, stressed a lot, worried a lot, and doubted a lot.

"What had I done to deserve all of this?"

My husband would often remind me that we were going through these things to bless someone else who would need to know they could make it through. Though that perspective was refreshing, it still didn’t remove the reality that I was living in at that moment. The light at the end of the tunnel felt so far that in my mind, it wasn’t even there. Had God put a light at the end, or was I trying to pull on the little bit of faith I had left to create a reality far from what I was seeing.

I was consumed with doubt and fear and I didn’t know how to pull myself out.

Doubt has a way of creeping into the very areas God wants to control, by way of the enemy's three greatest tactics, 

1. imaginations
2. speculations
3. and negative thoughts,

With these tactics at work, we can often find ourselves consumed in a sea of impending doom. But the enemy does not have the final say. God does, and tomorrow, we will explore what He says.

Today I want to ask you, what areas of your life have been consumed by fear and impending doom? Be sure to write your answers down because tomorrow we will be able to cross those out and replace them with what God says about your life!