How Jesus Responds to Our Doubts
By Jennifer Slattery
“Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Matthew 11:3
What happens when God doesn’t intervene? When circumstances grow worse, doors close, and illness lingers?
Is He still good?
Does He still love us?
Is He still God?
Just over two thousand years ago, a faithful prophet sat in a dark, dank dungeon, awaiting execution. The stench of decomposing bodies, the cold that ate at his bones, challenged his courage and faith.
The man who’d proclaimed, with certainty, that Jesus was “the lamb of God,” who’d baptized the Savior and had heard the voice of God declare Christ’s deity, worried he’d been wrong.
What if Jesus wasn’t the long-promised Savior?
In the confusion that comes from deep pain, he sent one of his disciples to ask Jesus if He truly was the Messiah.
John knew about all Christ had been doing. Even more, he knew what He hadn’t done, and in that moment, the one unanswered prayer drowned out every miracle proclaimed.
To which Jesus responded, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good news is preached to the poor.”
In other words, “I’m still good, powerful, present, and sovereign.”
Then He spoke to the crowds, “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.”
This was how Jesus addressed John’s doubt. Not with anger or disgust or rebuke. But with reminders of His power and affirmation of His love.
He responds to us in our doubt in the same way. God may not answer our prayers as we’d like. He may not rescue us from that difficult situation or bring long-desired healing. But when we come to Him honestly with our doubt and despair, He’ll center us in who He is and His love for us.
He is good and sovereign even when life is hard and uncertain and present even when we feel alone.
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, available for free (in ebook form) from Wholly Loved Ministries. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall outings with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit her online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
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Originally published Saturday, 23 March 2019.
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