We’re continuing our examination of how to view doubt as Christians healthily. Our series, Grounded Assurances, began with the premise that doubt is part and parcel of what it means to be a human with finite knowledge and experience and that there is a difference between unhealthy doubt and healthy doubt. While we wish we could whisk doubt away, it nevertheless creeps in from time to time, and we need to have a biblical framework upon which to build our faith in those testing times.
It follows that our foundation would be laid by the Word of God. Thus, we looked at the Mighty Acts of God in Humanity and saw that an understanding of the meta-narrative of the Bible–the glory of God revealed through grace given as a result of man’s sin is realized through redemption by Christ’s death and resurrection–serves as a lighthouse cutting through the fog of doubt.
Next, the foundation of our faith is built by examining Christ’s promises to His people.
Consider these seven promises Jesus made to His followers:
- Life
- John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
- Purpose
- Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’”
- Knowledge
- John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
- Friendship
- John 15:14-15 “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
- Joy
- John 15:9-11 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
- Security
- John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
- Reward
- Mark 10:29–31 “Jesus said, ‘Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.’”
God help us build our lives and faith upon the solid rock of Christ. Amen.
