Worry, Doubt, and Fear in the Lives of Believers

Do you trust God?

It is a simple question, but not an easy one to answer. We call ourselves ‘Christian’, and yet when the hard times come—as they will for all who seek to live godly lives, 2 Timothy 3:12—we fall victim to fear, doubt, and worry.

These three things rule over our hearts.

This should not be. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells believers to abide in faith, hope, and love.

Fear. Doubt. Worry.

Faith. Hope. Love.

Which group would you prefer to experience?

The answer, like the question, is simple, but not easy to employ. How do you choose to trust God when your first, natural impulse in a crisis is to worry? When in the course of your life things have often gone south, how do you hope? This is the crux of our faith. And there’s the rub: it is called faith. We are called to believe—not to know. And belief is employed through trust. Trusting in what we cannot see is never easy, but it is always worth it. God blesses those who trust in Him, and our trust and obedience is accounted to us as righteousness (Romans 4:3).

When a loved one is sick, for example, it is only natural that we worry and fear—and perhaps it is even forgivable when we doubt. But we are not called to doubt. We are believers. We are called to believe, to trust in the saving grace of our Savior.

So when the enemy comes to steal away your hope and trust, remember the titans of our faith: Abraham and David, Enoch and Elijah, Noah and Moses and Sarah and all the others. They believed when everyone and the physical world said it was a lost cause. What did Job do when he was told that his children had been killed? He trusted. It seems incredible to our modern sensibilities that a man could trust God after hearing that his children have died. The impulse today is to question or abandon God. But Job chose a wiser, harder path.

He chose to trust that God knew what He was doing.

Read that statement again. Therein you will find the reason for all your worry, doubt, and fear. You do not trust God. You do not trust that He knows what He is doing.

You question Him when tragedy strikes. When bad news comes, your faith falters. You worry about what might happen. You fear that more bad news will come. You doubt that God will make the right choice.

The truth is: God always makes the righteous choice.

It is not an easy thing, as humans, with our limited perceptions and our ideas of how things should go, to accept that God knows best. When He calls a loved one home, or allows a loved one to suffer, it never seems like the work of a loving Creator.

This is why, when trials and persecutions and inexplicable events occur, we need to turn to scripture and be reminded that:

• God is not like us. (Isaiah 55:8-9) ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’

• The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works (Psalm 145:17)

•  He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are Justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He’ (Deuteronomy 32:4)

•  In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10)

• God is in control: (Psalm 103:19)

Search the scriptures, for in them you find the path to eternal life, and it is your eternal soul which occupies our heavenly Fathers’ thoughts, and to which He works His gracious will. We have a tendency to see moments with razor sharp focus. Try to realize that God sees all moments—every moment of your life and of the lives of your loved ones. He knows all things. He knows what is right, even if to our narrow-minded way of thinking it seems wrong or cruel.

A hard lesson, true, but scripture does not tell us that ours will be lives of ease. It tells us instead that our eternities will be filled with peace and love, where all suffering is over.

Also find comfort in Isaiah 41:10.

You worry and fear and doubt, which causes stress, which leads to depression and hearts closed to God. Nothing in this world, no ‘Positive Thinking Movement’, ‘no name it and claim it doctrine’, no ‘love yourself and everything will be peachy’ philosophy is going to save you from reality.

Only Jesus saves.

Find Him in the precious word of God, and in prayer. Don’t waste your days worrying and doubting, when we have a heavenly Father who loves us, and a Savior who wants to save us from these things. Fear not, for He is God, and He knows what He is doing. He created the universe, and yet He knows us by name; He has counted every hair on your head. He knows what is right. Accept this and you can find peace in the everlasting arms.

We may not understand His ways, but we can choose to believe that they are right, and thereby banish the worry, fear, and doubt that Satan wants us to embrace.

Be well, beloved. Search the scriptures, and find your way to trusting God.