Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Can I Still Have Joy in Seasons of Doubt?

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Can I Still Have Joy in Seasons of Doubt? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Welcome back on this Monday, on the final day of July. Last time,
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  on Thursday, we looked at God's joy and how his joy becomes our
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  joy by the Holy Spirit, a really key episode EPJA nineteen sixty two.
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  This week we continue on the joy theme, but we add another theme to
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  it, the theme of doubt. In fact, can we struggle with doubt
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  and experience joy in God? That's today, and next time we look at
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  how to fight off the inner skeptic when we have doubts about what we read
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  about in the Bible. That's on Thursday. So today can we struggle with
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  doubt and delight in God at the same time. That's Steve's question. He
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  lives in Nashville. Hello, Pastor John. My question for you is about
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  how much joy I can hope to experience in the Christian life as someone who
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  struggles seasonally with doubt. Sometimes I struggle with doubts about whether God exists,
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  or whether God is good based on all the evil that I see in the
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  news, or I doubt whether God has a plan and purpose for my life.
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  These doubts come and go. They're seasonal. None of them extinguish the
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  smoldering flax that is my faith. The doubts do not stay long and they
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  do not overwhelm me. So my question for you is this, can I
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  ever hope to have deepening joy in God in seasons when I also struggle with
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  doubts like these? Or as joy in God simply impossible when doubts are present.
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  I think the answer to that last question is no, it is not
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  impossible to experience joy in God when doubts are present. And I think the
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  answer to the question just before it is yes, you can hope to have
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  deepening joy in God in seasons when you are also struggling with So those are
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  my two answers. Now let's try to think biblically about this. First,
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  a definition, doubt comes in all sizes and shapes and durations and levels of
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  seriousness. So I'm going to call doubt of a Christian variety, that is,
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  doubts that real born again Christians have from time to time. I'm going
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  to call those doubts thoughts that enter our minds from who knows where it could
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  be Satan's fiery darts, desires of the flesh, skeptical associate at work who
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  mocks your religion, some new scientific argument, lack of sleep, dalliance with
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  sin, all kinds of sources for how doubt rise or thoughts rise in our
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  minds. So thoughts that enter the mind that make us wonder whether something the
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  Bible teaches is really true or whether we ourselves are as real as we think
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  we were. Those are the two kinds of doubts that I think a Christian
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  wrestles with. Christian truth claims may not be true or we may not be
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  true. Now, for the Christian, these thoughts are not conclusions. These
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  are intrusions. They break in like a thief. They start moving around the
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  house of your mind and knocking things over and making threats. This really does
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  happen to Jesus followers. When Peter started to sink after walking a few steps
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  on the water, Jesus said, why did you doubt? When Jesus appeared
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  after the resurrection, it says they worshiped him, but some doubted. Jude
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  twenty two says, have mercy. This is in the church. Have mercy
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  on those who doubt. In other words, such doubting is not a sign
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  of no faith, it's a sign of embattled faith. When Paul says we
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  should fight the good fight of faith. First Timothy six twelve. He included
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  in his meaning when doubts intrude, fight them. Fight them with prayer,
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  I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. That's a prayer, or fight
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  them with the word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word.
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  That doesn't just apply at the front end of the Christian life thoughts.
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  Every day we fight doubt by the word, fight it by obedience. John
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  seventeen says, if anyone's will is to do my will, he'll know,
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  he'll know whether the teaching is of God. Obedient people will have fewer doubts
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  than disobedient people. And my answer to Steve's question is that during that battle,
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  during that season of doubt, it is possible to experience, alongside the
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  anxiety of doubt, deepening joy in God. Now why would I say that
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  first, Because the anxieties of doubt are a kind of sorrow. And Paul
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  says in Second Corinthian six ten that Christians can have experience of joy at the
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  same time as experiencing sorrow, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet
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  making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. If sorrow and joy
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  can mysteriously coexist in the same heart at the same time. And they can
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  then doubt and joy in God can coexist at the same time. Picture doubt
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  as the troubled waters on the surface of the sea, and picture the new
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  creation reality of faith as the deep still waters of the ocean depths beneath second
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  I think in Paul's mind, perplexity is another way of talking about some kinds
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  of doubt. And he says in second Corinthians four eight, we are afflicted
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  in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair.
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  So what is perplexity. Perplexity is a state of confusion or uncertainty, uncertainty,
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  And what is uncertainty but a kind of doubt. And yet Paul admits
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  to experiencing this kind of perplexity, doubt but knowing full well he will not
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  be destroyed by it, perplexed but not driven to despair. And that confidence
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  beneath the perplexity can be experienced as a kind of deep joy in God's keeping.
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  Picture a child lost in the forest, But underneath that growing anxiety of
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  the child and his growing doubts is the deep confidence Dad, he will find
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  me, he said, He would he will find me. He promised to
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  keep me. Third, consider Romans five, three and four. We rejoice
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  in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. An endurance produces a provedness,
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  and a provedness produces hope. Now, what that text teaches is that
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  the reason we can rejoice in times of misery suffering hurts, it's misery.
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  The reason we can rejoice in times of misery is that we have learned that
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  enduring through the experiences of misery has the effect of giving us a sense of
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  authenticity. We made it, We're real. We have been tested by fire
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  and found to be approved. And that he says produces hope, and hope
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  is why we can rejoice. That's the argument. And I think the very
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  same process of testing and enduring and hope and joy can be experienced when the
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  kind of suffering is not physical pain but psychological doubt. We rejoice in our
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  seasons of doubt, knowing that the suffering of doubt produces endure. An endurance
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  produces a provence, and a provenness produces hope. And that's the ground of
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  our joy. And I would answer Steve's question, that's the ground of deepening
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  joy. Yes, can I experience deepening joy in these seasons? And my
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  answer was yes. In fact, he said these kinds of doubts are recurrent
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  seasonal. When that's true, every season of doubt with triumph on the other
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  side can bring a deepening sense that God is faithful. God will hold me
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  fast. I can, in a sense laugh at these intrusions on my peace.
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  I can scorn the foam and the waves on the surface because in the
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  deep waters of my soul I enjoy. I enjoy paradoxical calm because of christ
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  keeping promises. So yes, Steve, you can hope to have deepening joy
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  in God in these recurring seasons of doubt. Every season of doubt with triumph
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  on the other side, can bring a deepening sense that God is faithful.
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  Thank you, Pastor John for that hope giving word, and thank you for
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  joining us today. If you want to ask Pastor John, email your question
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  to us that ask Pastor John at Desiring God dot Org. As we close,
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  I want to highlight one point from early in this episode that you made,
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  Pastor John. You mentioned that struggle with doubt when thoughts enter our mind
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  that make us wonder whether something the Bible teaches is really true, that doubt
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  battling the inner agnostic in our Bible reading. That's up next. I'm your
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  host, Tony Rinkie. We'll see you on Thursday.