Pray Through Your Doubt

The Importance of Prayer Part 2: Pray through your Doubt

Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?

He said “A Rod.”

And He said, “Cast it on the ground.”  So he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. 

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Furthermore, the Lord said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.

And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.”  So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh.  “Then it will be if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the latter sign.  And it shall be that if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land.  The water which you take from the river will become blood on dry land.”

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind?  Have not I, the Lord?  Now therefore, go and I will be your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother?  I know that he can speak well.  And look, he is coming out to meet you.  When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.  Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth.  And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.” (Exodus 4-15)

This is Moses praying through his doubt.  God spoke to Moses and told him what He wanted Moses to do.  But Moses was too scared to move, too unsure of himself to go where God told him to go and change what God told him to change.  So he faced every doubt in prayer (talking to God) and God brought him through to trusting him in every instance.

Moses was afraid people wouldn’t believe him – so God gave him three signs for proof.  Moses had a stutter and was afraid of speaking publicly – God assured him that he could be healed.  Moses didn’t want to do the job alone – so God let his brother go with him.

You don’t have to face your fears alone.   You don’t have to hide your doubts.  God wants you to expose your doubts and fears to the light of His mercy and grace.  It is in that light that He can show you that you have no reason to fear or doubt.

But do you still doubt?

Do you remember the story about the man whose son was demon possessed, but the disciples couldn’t cast it out?  The father was full of doubt, so when Jesus came on the scene, he doubted Jesus could do anything, either.  Even though he was full of doubt, he had hope that Jesus could do it.

“But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:22-24 NKJV)

That was a prayer that Jesus gladly answered.  Again, silence would not help this man, only prayer.  When you doubt that God can do what you need, then pray this simple prayer.  Tell God what you believe.  Tell Him that you want to believe more.  Then be faithful in what you know you can.

Sometimes you will be required to take a leap of faith.  Have you seen “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?”  Toward the end of the movie, Indy has to pass three tests in order to gain the Holy Grail and save his father’s life.  The final test in this series is the “Leap of Faith.”  Indy has to walk in faith across a canyon to the other side. 

He doesn’t want to do it.  He can see that if he steps of the ledge that he will fall to his death, because the canyon seems bottomless.  But Indy also knows what his book says, and it says that if he has faith and steps off the lion’s head, he will make it to the other side.

So this is where you might find yourself.  Your book says that if you have faith you’ll make it to the other side, but you can see that the cavern is deep and that the fall would kill you.  It’s time to pray that prayer of help for your unbelief – and then have the faith to take that first step.

That is the moment of truth.  The father in the story above took that first step and then found himself across the canyon of belief to a healed son without effort beyond that initial tread, because Jesus did the rest.  But what if he didn’t pray that prayer, or trust that Jesus could even help his unbelief?  He would never have made it across that canyon or found his son healing.

Indy also found that the first step took faith, but every other step afterword was a breeze.  Under his feet he found a hidden walkway that couldn’t be seen from the edge of the cliff.  If you only believe in what you see, that’s not faith.  God wants you to take the first step for your change in faith praying through your doubt, then you will find that your doubt was unfounded and your faith grounded.

Part 2 of 3...will post part 3 tomorrow, "Praying through to Change."