The Vain Search for Certainty
Doubt. Wouldn’t you love to be free from doubt? We would love to know so many things with complete and absolute certainty. But, there are very few matters that we know with scientific precision. We know that if you take one item and add another item to it, you have two items. You know that you exist. You know that you are reading this devotional.
But there are so many matters that we cannot know with that type of certainty. When does the soul enter the body? Is democracy the best man can do? Is capitalism the most efficient economic plan possible? There are also our religious beliefs that cannot be proven with the same level of accuracy as math problems.
Yet, the more evidence we have that Christianity is true, the weightier the scale gets in that regard and our doubts get weaker and weaker. The weight of the evidence for Christianity includes its historical foundations, its consistency with itself as well as with Old Testament theology, its reasonableness and its ability to change lives in every culture, in every society, in every age.
Think about Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14:22-33. The disciples were three or four miles in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when this storm comes up. Some time between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., a being comes walking on the water and the disciples cry out, fearing it is some type of phantom. Jesus encourages them to be courageous and have faith.
Notice Peter’s trust in Jesus in verses 28-29. What gave Peter the confidence that he could trust Jesus to walk on water? If I have counted correctly, from the time Peter was called to be an apostle, he has witnessed Jesus perform fourteen specific miracles. When Jesus says, “Come,” Peter has ample reason to believe he can trust Jesus.
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But doubt sometimes motivates us to stop trusting and then we stop obeying. We take our eyes off Jesus and we start to sink. Persecution. Slander. A bad economy. But a “water-walking-faith” obeys even if the world is a mess around us.
Finally, once Peter gets back into the boat, he, along with the other disciples, worships (vs 33). God’s blessings, renewed through our relationship with Jesus, results in our awe, our love, and our adoration directed toward Him.
Faith means we trust God, in His faithfulness and immutability (see Psalm 100:5). Faith involves our growth in understanding (2 Peter 1:5; 3:14). Finally, faith involves our obedience (Romans 1:5; 16:26).
If we allow our faith to grow shallow, death will seep in. When you doubt, go to the One Who can walk on water. Learn from Him. He’ll reach out to you and draw you into the safety of His arms.
–Paul Holland
