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June 3, 2016. Faith and Doubt: Fear, Questions or Pride. (James 1:5-8)
I’ve seen believers with 3 different kinds of faith. All three are truly Christians, sincere in their belief, but facing the challenges of faith differently.
Faith with fear. Fearful doubt--it’s a worried uncertainty. Fear paralyzes us so we don't move into action. True faith is full of uncertainty (otherwise it wouldn’t be faith), but fear of mistakes shouldn’t prevent us from doing what’s good and right.
Faith with questions. Questioning yourself isn’t the same as doubt. It's good to examine what you believe and question your motives. Questioning helps guide us down a good path. Faith with wise questioning allows us to act even though we don't know everything. We do our best to do what’s good and right.
Faith with pride. Moving out with complete, unquestioning confidence isn't faith—it’s foolish pride. Faith is trusting God to guide us. Wisdom demands that we continually seek him, knowing that we see poorly. Assuming that I'm right and everyone else is wrong is pride, not the kind of faith our creator desires.
Scripture tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), a clear command not to be arrogant and overconfident. But we’re also told to do good (Ephesians 2:10), and the scriptures hold many promises of peace and joy (Philippians 4:4-7). So, I see a paradoxical balance here. There is an element of uncertainty in faith that keeps us from arrogance and pride, but not so much as to deny us peace and joy or prevent us from doing all the good we can.
Godly faith is acting on what we believe after doing our best to understand, even though we know there are some things we can't see or understand. Let us avoid being paralyzed in fear of what we might not know or blinded by overconfidence in what we think we know.
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