Dealing With Doubt, Part 3: Know What You Know
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Walking down the aisle that perfect June day, holding
tightly to my dad’s arm, my insides churned and the tears started to fall. They
would not stop (even after the pastor asked me if I wanted to continue—true story!)
until I walked back down the aisle holding my new husband’s arm.
O.K., maybe not even then.
When we look back on our wedding day, we cannot reflect
without talking about how much I cried that day. Our wedding album is filled
with pictures of me, red-eyed, and him, wide-eyed.
The tears represented so much that day. My excitement for
the future. My sadness about leaving my past. My fears.
And my doubts.
I was a baby, in a sense. A 22-year-old baby who knew
nothing about marriage. Or life. Or the man she was about to marry.
I remember walking slowly with my dad, questions flooding my
mind.
What am I doing? What
if something goes wrong? I’ve only known this guy for three years, but do I
really KNOW him? What if he’s not the person I think he is?
Yes, I was scared. Truly scared.
Until I looked ahead and saw the man standing at the end of
the aisle, waiting for me. And that was when my tears of doubt turned to tears
of joy.
Why? Because I knew him. Even though I wondered how much I
knew, I knew what I knew.
I knew he was a man of God.
I knew he was a man of integrity.
I knew he was a man of commitment.
And I knew he loved me.
And so, during that long walk down the aisle, I remembered
what I really knew about the man I loved. I walked. And I met him. And I
married him. Forever.
Last week we talked about knowing what we’re dealing with
when we doubt. How our doubts are natural. How they are normal. How our doubts
are entirely O.K.—God doesn’t get mad at us for questioning.
Today, if you’re in the midst of doubting, I want you to
remember one thing:
know what you know.
You may have been raised without any church background at
all. You may be just wondering if there is a God at all. You may have gone to
church all your life, but you still wonder about some aspects about God.
Wherever you are at this moment, you can find something true.
Getting at the truth
What do you know about God? Right now. Today. Is there one thing you can hold on to?
You might want to begin at the very beginning—God. Who He
is. What He has done. What He has promised to those who love Him.
God’s word, the Bible, is His love letter to us, and in it
is all the richest Truth the world could hold. The Bible tells us everything we
need to know about God.
Here are just a few things that I hold on to when I’m in a
place of doubt:
God is the Creator of the Universe. (Genesis 1)
Everything was made by Him and for Him. (Acts 17:23-25)
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (I John 1:5) (In other words, He’s not trying to hide from you.)
God loves you. So much. (John 3:16)
The Bible is FULL of truths about God. We doubters just need
to hold on to them.
The world around us is also full of truths about God. The
sun rising and setting each day—gifts from God. A baby’s eyelashes. The wag of
a dog’s tail. Birthday cake.
God reveals Himself to us in so many ways every day.
We just need to open our eyes and look for them.
This week, be a God-seeker. Look for specific ways, every
day, that God shows you that He’s real. Believe me, once you start looking,
you’ll start finding. After all, God promises that “you will seek me and find
me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Keep walking
Walking down that aisle, that beautiful June day, I’ll
admit, I was terrified. Half of me wanted to turn around and run, kind of like
Julia Roberts in “Runaway Bride.”
But I kept walking.
I remembered what I knew about the man I was about to marry.
I knew that he was completely committed to me, and I knew that I was completely
committed to him. And I knew that we were both completely committed to God.
Here we are, almost 27 years later, and I know, without a
doubt, that we are still completely committed to those things.
Have we had struggles over the years? Sure. Have I doubted
my husband’s love for me from time to time? Yes. But through it all, I could
remind myself of what I knew about him on that very first day and know about
him still.
Today if you’re doubting, fall back on what you know about
God. Search His love letter to you and hold on to those words. Spend time this
week finding one way every day that God shows you that He is real, and write
those things down.
And keep walking, straight into the arms of the One who
loves you.
Know what you know.
Q4U: What is one
thing you know about God?
How has God shown
Himself to be real to you?
If you’re doubting,
what is one thing you wish you knew about God?
Linking this post to Amanda's Weekend Bloggy Reading Link-up at "Serenity Now."
