Struggling with Doubt

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" —Matthew 11:2

It may surprise you to know that some of the greatest men and women of God whom we read about in the pages of Scripture have had their moments of doubt. Even the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, struggled with doubt.

In John's case, we might say that his doubt was due to confusion. He had a certain concept of what the Christ was supposed to do that Jesus simply was not doing. It is not that Jesus was failing to do what He was supposed to do; it was that John misunderstood what God was going to do.

Scripture clearly taught that before the Messiah would establish His kingdom, He would suffer and die. Before Jesus would sit on a throne, He first would be nailed to a cross. This is what the Scripture taught. Passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 spoke extensively about the suffering of the Messiah. But His role had been misunderstood. So John the Baptist sent word from prison to ask Jesus, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" (Matthew 11:2). Yet everything was going exactly as it was supposed to go. It is just that John misunderstood.

That can happen to us as well. Sometimes we misunderstand God and His Word. Something happens that wasn't part of our plan for our lives, and we wonder why God allowed it. We wonder whether He is paying attention. The problem is that we interpret God in light of the tragedy instead of the other way around. Many times, our doubt is due to our confusion about what we think God ought to be doing.

Are you entertaining doubts today? Take heart. God is in control, and He has His purposes in the circumstances of your life.

Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

中國神學研究院 : 生命之道查經 二零一一年二月至四月課程

希伯來書(上)研讀
日期 : 02/10/2011 – 04/07/2011（一連九個星期四）
時間 : 7:45pm - 9:45pm（第一課請於7:30pm前到達會場）
地點 :
* 三藩市(三藩市華人宣道會 San Francisco Chinese Alliance Church‎, 1150 Vicente Street, San Francisco, CA 94116)
* 南灣（東）(Crosspoint Church, 658 Gibraltar Court, Milpitas CA 95035)
* 南灣（西）(Foothill Baptist Church, 1347 Richardson Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94024)

特色：
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* 嶄新學習方法: 以視像越洋即時傳送或光碟播放
* 由中國神學研究院老師或同工在香港以粵語講道或作經文講解

報名資格 :
* 重生得救的基督徒，願意委身研讀神的話，並承諾穩定出席查經聚會（不可缺席多過兩次）

截止日期 : 01/17/2011 (星期一)
* 名額有限，先到先得
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