Can I Still Have Joy in Seasons of Doubt?

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:04.000 | Welcome back on this Monday, on the final day of July.

00:00:09.000 | Last time on Thursday, we looked at God's joy and how His joy becomes our joy by the Holy Spirit.

00:00:17.000 | A really key episode, EPJ 1962.

00:00:20.000 | This week we continue on the joy theme, but we add another theme to it, the theme of doubt.

00:00:26.000 | In fact, can we struggle with doubt and experience joy in God?

00:00:31.000 | That's today, and next time we look at how to fight off the inner skeptic

00:00:35.000 | when we have doubts about what we read about in the Bible.

00:00:38.000 | That's on Thursday.

00:00:40.000 | So today, can we struggle with doubt and delight in God at the same time?

00:00:45.000 | That's Steve's question. He lives in Nashville.

00:00:47.000 | Hello, Pastor John. My question for you is about how much joy I can hope to experience

00:00:51.000 | in the Christian life as someone who struggles seasonally with doubt.

00:00:55.000 | Sometimes I struggle with doubts about whether God exists, or whether God is good,

00:01:00.000 | based on all the evil that I see in the news, or I doubt whether God has a plan and purpose for my life.

00:01:07.000 | These doubts come and go. They're seasonal.

00:01:10.000 | None of them extinguish the smoldering flax that is my faith.

00:01:14.000 | The doubts do not stay long, and they do not overwhelm me.

00:01:18.000 | So my question for you is this.

00:01:20.000 | Do I ever hope to have deepening joy in God in seasons when I also struggle with doubts like these?

00:01:28.000 | Or is joy in God simply impossible when doubts are present?

00:01:33.000 | I think the answer to that last question is no.

00:01:37.000 | It is not impossible to experience joy in God when doubts are present.

00:01:45.000 | And I think the answer to the question just before it is yes.

00:01:50.000 | You can hope to have deepening joy in God in seasons when you are also struggling with doubts.

00:02:00.000 | So those are my two answers. Now let's try to think biblically about this.

00:02:06.000 | First, a definition.

00:02:08.000 | Doubt comes in all sizes and shapes and durations and levels of seriousness.

00:02:17.000 | So I'm going to call doubt of a Christian variety,

00:02:21.000 | that is, doubts that real born-again Christians have from time to time.

00:02:27.000 | I'm going to call those doubts thoughts that enter our minds from who knows where.

00:02:35.000 | It could be Satan's fiery darts, desires of the flesh, skeptical associate at work who mocks your religion,

00:02:45.000 | some new scientific argument, lack of sleep, dalliance with sin,

00:02:51.000 | all kinds of sources for how doubt rise or thoughts rise in our minds.

00:02:58.000 | So thoughts that enter the mind that make us wonder whether something the Bible teaches is really true

00:03:07.000 | or whether we ourselves are as real as we think we were.

00:03:13.000 | Those are the two kinds of doubts that I think a Christian wrestles with.

00:03:19.000 | Christian truth claims may not be true or we may not be true.

00:03:25.000 | Now, for the Christian, these thoughts are not conclusions.

00:03:33.000 | These are intrusions.

00:03:36.000 | They break in like a thief.

00:03:39.000 | They start moving around the house of your mind and knocking things over and making threats.

00:03:46.000 | This really does happen to Jesus' followers.

00:03:50.000 | When Peter started to sink after walking a few steps on the water, Jesus said, "Why did you doubt?"

00:03:57.000 | When Jesus appeared after the resurrection, it says, "They worshipped him, but some doubted."

00:04:04.000 | Jude 22 says, "Have mercy."

00:04:07.000 | This is in the church. "Have mercy on those who doubt."

00:04:11.000 | In other words, such doubting is not a sign of no faith.

00:04:17.000 | It's a sign of embattled faith.

00:04:20.000 | When Paul says we should fight the good fight of faith, 1 Timothy 6:12,

00:04:26.000 | he included in his meaning, "When doubts intrude, fight them. Fight them with prayer."

00:04:34.000 | "I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief." That's a prayer.

00:04:38.000 | Or, "Fight them with the Word."

00:04:41.000 | Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word.

00:04:44.000 | That doesn't just apply at the front end of the Christian life. That's every day.

00:04:48.000 | We fight doubt by the Word.

00:04:50.000 | "Fight it by obedience," John 7:17 says.

00:04:53.000 | "If anyone's will is to do my will, he'll know."

00:04:57.000 | He'll know whether the teaching is of God.

00:04:59.000 | Obedient people have fewer doubts than disobedient people.

00:05:03.000 | And my answer to Steve's question is that during that battle,

00:05:09.000 | during that season of doubt, it is possible to experience,

00:05:14.000 | alongside the anxiety of doubt, deepening joy in God.

00:05:21.000 | Now, why would I say that?

00:05:24.000 | First, because the anxieties of doubt are a kind of sorrow.

00:05:31.000 | And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:10 that Christians can have experience of joy

00:05:39.000 | at the same time as experiencing sorrow.

00:05:43.000 | "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich;

00:05:47.000 | as having nothing, yet possessing everything."

00:05:50.000 | If sorrow and joy can mysteriously coexist in the same heart at the same time,

00:05:58.000 | and they can, then doubt and joy in God can coexist at the same time.

00:06:07.000 | Picture doubt as the troubled waters on the surface of the sea

00:06:14.000 | and picture the new creation reality of faith as the deep, still waters of the ocean dips beneath.

00:06:23.000 | Second, I think in Paul's mind, perplexity is another way of talking about some kinds of doubt.

00:06:34.000 | And he says in 2 Corinthians 4:8, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;

00:06:43.000 | perplexed, but not driven to despair."

00:06:48.000 | So what is perplexity?

00:06:51.000 | Perplexity is a state of confusion or uncertainty.

00:06:56.000 | Uncertainty.

00:06:58.000 | And what is uncertainty but a kind of doubt?

00:07:02.000 | And yet Paul admits to experiencing this kind of perplexity, doubt,

00:07:08.000 | but knowing full well he will not be destroyed by it.

00:07:12.000 | Perplexed, but not driven to despair.

00:07:15.000 | And that confidence beneath the perplexity can be experienced as a kind of deep joy in God's keeping.

00:07:26.000 | Picture a child lost in the forest,

00:07:30.000 | but underneath that growing anxiety of the child and his growing doubts is the deep confidence,

00:07:37.000 | "Daddy will find me. He said he would. He will find me. He promised to keep me."

00:07:43.000 | Third, consider Romans 5, 3, and 4.

00:07:49.000 | "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

00:07:54.000 | and endurance produces approvedness, and approvedness produces hope."

00:08:00.000 | Now what that text teaches is that the reason we can rejoice in times of misery,

00:08:06.000 | suffering hurts, it's misery.

00:08:10.000 | The reason we can rejoice in times of misery is that we have learned that

00:08:17.000 | enduring through the experiences of misery has the effect of giving us a sense of authenticity.

00:08:24.000 | We made it.

00:08:26.000 | We're real.

00:08:28.000 | We have been tested by fire and found to be approved,

00:08:32.000 | and that, he says, produces hope, and hope is why we can rejoice.

00:08:37.000 | That's the argument.

00:08:39.000 | And I think the very same process of testing and enduring and hope and joy

00:08:46.000 | can be experienced when the kind of suffering is not physical pain but psychological doubt.

00:08:53.000 | We rejoice in our seasons of doubt,

00:08:56.000 | knowing that the suffering of doubt produces endurance,

00:09:00.000 | and endurance produces approvedness,

00:09:02.000 | and approvedness produces hope, and that's the ground of our joy.

00:09:06.000 | And I would answer Steve's question, "That's the ground of deepening joy."

00:09:12.000 | He asked, "Can I experience deepening joy in these seasons?"

00:09:16.000 | And my answer was, "Yes."

00:09:18.000 | In fact, he said, "These kinds of doubts are recurrent, seasonal."

00:09:24.000 | When that's true, every season of doubt with triumph on the other side

00:09:32.000 | can bring a deepening sense that God is faithful.

00:09:37.000 | God will hold me fast.

00:09:40.000 | I can, in a sense, laugh at these intrusions on my peace.

00:09:45.000 | I can scorn the foam and the waves on the surface

00:09:49.000 | because in the deep waters of my soul,

00:09:53.000 | I enjoy paradoxical calm because of Christ's keeping promises.

00:10:02.000 | So, yes, Steve, you can hope to have deepening joy in God

00:10:09.000 | in these recurring seasons of doubt.

00:10:14.000 | Every season of doubt with triumph on the other side

00:10:19.000 | can bring a deepening sense that God is faithful.

00:10:23.000 | Thank you, Pastor John, for that hope-giving word.

00:10:26.000 | And thank you for joining us today.

00:10:27.000 | If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question to us at

00:10:30.000 | AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org

00:10:35.000 | As we close, I want to highlight one point from early in this episode

00:10:39.000 | that you made, Pastor John.

00:10:40.000 | You mentioned that struggle with doubt, when thoughts enter our mind

00:10:43.000 | that make us wonder whether something the Bible teaches is really true.

00:10:48.000 | That doubt, battling the inner agnostic in our Bible reading,

00:10:53.000 | that's up next.

00:10:54.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:55.000 | We'll see you on Thursday.

00:10:57.000 | [END]

00:10:59.000 | [END]

00:11:01.000 | [END]

00:11:03.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Can I Still Have Joy in Seasons of Doubt?

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