The Bout With Doubt
Part of Faith and Doubt
April 24, 2025

Faith and Doubt

The Bout With Doubt
April 27, 2025
Chris Seidman, Teaching Minister, The Branch

Definitions of Doubt
DOUBT - a spirit of uncertainty, a lack of confidence, having reservations, misgivings, skepticism, questioning, hesitation, wavering, double-mindedness.

One of the most common words for doubt is the Greek word distazo – with dis meaning “double” and stazo being a word for “stand.”

Doubt / Double

Matthew 14:29-31 (NIV)
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Peter’s Faith and Doubt

  • Peter has a history with Jesus – a prior relationship with Him leading up to this moment.

  • Jesus didn’t say that Peter had no faith – He said he had little faith.

  • I don’t think Peter had little faith all the time; he was walking on the water at one point.

  • Peter still reaches out to Jesus even in the midst of his doubt.

Some of us hit the wall …

  • Through disillusionment with the Lord.

Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”

  • Through a disappointing experience with the “Lord’s people.”

Mark 9:17-18, 22-24 (NIV)
“Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit … . I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
“… if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9:22 (NIV)
“… if you can do anything … .”

Mark 9:24 (NIV)
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

  • Through a profoundly difficult experience.

Matthew 27:46 (NIV)
“My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Eugene Peterson Quote
One of the surprises that inevitably come to Christians who follow Jesus is the vast number of people who experience and cry out their despair at being abandoned, whether by God, or spouse, or child, or friend, asking “Why?”
We hear Jesus’ cry of dereliction repeated, echoing down the corridors of the centuries, ricocheting off the walls of our churches and homes. And however long or attentively we listen, we never get an answer to the “Why?” Does it help to find Jesus in our company as we pray our “Why?” I think it does.
It is the first line of Psalm 22. It is a psalm that expresses excruciating isolation, emotional devastation, and physical pain. It is also a psalm that ends up in a congregation, “the great congregation” (vs.25) of men and women among whom he is able to give witness that God “did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him” (vs.24).
Does it help to know that this psalm ends differently that it begins? I think it does. And does it help to observe that this is the first single-sentence prayer from the cross – but not the last? Jesus keeps praying. Fragments of prayer torn out of childhood innocence, broken shards of prayer from broken lives, having a way of coming together again in the company of Jesus. Jesus is not done praying. And neither are we.

  • The Lord has been known to pass through walls.

Matthew 28:17 (NIV)
… they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Jude 22 (NIV)
Be merciful to those who doubt.

Two Questions
When it comes to matters of faith, what do you doubt? Why?

Who do you know that you could invite to join you next week?

Communion
Can you think of a time in the past when the Lord “showed up” amidst your doubt?

A prayer to pray: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”