Beloved, when your enemies seem to be all around you, your problems seem to be so many and the solutions so few, your prayers seem to go unanswered, the hits seem to keep coming, the hope of promises being fulfilled seems to be a distant memory, and the clouds of uncertainty seem to just hang over you it is easy to begin to doubt yourself.
When many things in your life seem to be unraveling and the struggles seem to be constant, it’s easy to begin to doubt that things will ever get any better, or most importantly, to doubt God and His faithfulness that His promises give you through His word.
Judges 6: 11 – 16
(Verses 15 & 16) So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
In the above passage we find a man named Gideon and his people who have been attacked and harassed by their enemy. Gideon is found threshing wheat in the winepress. Normally wheat is threshed out in an open space, but Gideon felt the wheat was more secure hidden from their enemies in the winepress. When the angel of the Lord appears he immediately declares to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon immediately begins to question, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are the miracles that our fathers told us about? Why has the Lord forsaken us?” Beloved know this day that you have not been forsaken (Deut 31:6). God has a time and a place for your every victory. God’s word is true and will not fail. His plans for you are to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (a future filled with hope). Jeremiah 29:11
So many times when things get their hardest we begin to question and doubt God, His Word, and who God says we are. When the angel called Gideon “A mighty of Valor” and told him to “Go in this might of yours…” Gideon began to describe himself and his tribe as the smallest and weakest. He didn’t see himself as God saw him. Because of the hardship and trials they had endured he doubted what God said and how he saw himself.
May I suggest to you (and myself) that at our hardest times and weakest moments that instead of choosing to doubt God and His word, that we choose to doubt our doubts. Yes, doubt your doubts! Don’t doubt God, His word, or the faith of God that is in you. If you’re going to doubt anything, doubt your doubts; they’re unreliable.
Be dedicated to God and single minded. Declare unwaveringly “The Lord is my help and strength and will lead me and guide me. I may not understand the – how’s – or the – why’s – or the – when’s – or the – what’s – of my situation but this one thing I know; The Lord is with me! Right now He is preparing me, guiding me, strengthening me, teaching me, revealing things to me, and lining things up for me, because He is faithful. I choose to doubt my doubts.”
Are you willing to see yourself, as God sees you? I encourage you to be willing to allow Him to pull the cover back so you can see. Many times we can’t walk in victory until we first see what it is that God has been trying to show us about ourselves. As God begins to reveal to Gideon his true heart, he was able to then see himself as God saw him and doubt his doubts! Truly he was “A mighty man of Valor” who lived life as God intended, not hidden in the winepress just barely getting by.
Believe God and His word! And, doubt your doubts.