Thursday, March 4, 2010

DOUBT: Why do we do it?

DOUBT:
1 a : uncertainty of belief or opinion that often interferes with decision-making b : a deliberate suspension of judgment
2 : a state of affairs giving rise to uncertainty, hesitation, or suspense
3 a : a lack of confidence b : an inclination not to believe or accept
WHY DO YOU DOUBT?

Have you ever pondered why humans, at every circumstance, doubt? We have an opinion that often interferes with decision-making. Now when you think about Jesus's life, did he ever doubt? Did he ever think God had uncertainty or used hesitation when he gave him instructions?  Did he have an inclination not to believe or accept what his Father instructed him to do?
Tell me you haven't had a time in your life where you have been put in a situation with your boss, parent, professor and they instructed you to do FILL IN THE BLANK. You don't want to do what they ask you to so give an appeal, an alternative, a plan B. We do whatever we can so that we don't have to do plan A.

In MARK 14 and MATTHEW 26,
Jesus took his Disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane where he asked them to "Stay there and watch while he went ahead to pray." He went before God and fell down and prayed for he knew what was to come next. "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me......" And then Jesus says something that most people don't really pay attention to.... "Yet not what I will, but what you will." 

Do you realize what he said??? "Yet not what I will..." Emphasis on I. "but what you will." He didn't attempt to go for a plan B. The Father instructed him that it was not possible for he is a just God. Sinclair Ferguson comments on this passage saying,

"Jesus was about to be exposed to the one thing in life he really feared: not the cruel death which would end it (he knew he would rise again), but the indestructible experience of feeling himself to God-forsaken. He felt he could not live - indeed, that life was not worth living - without the consciousness of his Father's love for him.
Yet the fact that he entered that darkness and experienced such grief is the source of all our comfort. It assumes us that he understands our darkest hours. But more, it means that he has drawn the sting from our darkest hour for he has entered our God-forsaken condition so that we might share his God-accepted relationship to the Father!"

He took the penalty for us so that we might have a plan B. So why again do we continue to doubt him when he doesn't work EXACTLY when WE want Him to?
1 Peter 2:21, "Christ Suffered for you, leaving an example, that you should follow in his steps." His prayer should be our prayer everyday, in every circumstance, through every trial. "Yet not what I will, but what you will." (v. 36)

God has the power to change our lives so we why should we doubt Him to work? We should plan on it and look forward to it. Let us all be followers who have a stronger grasp of what he has done and live according to it. This is my prayer for my life and every believers life.


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