Episode 18: How do I keep the dark clouds of doubt away?
I like sunny days and don’t mind a few cloudy days here and there. I know those dark clouds serve a purpose. Every experience we have in this life serves a purpose, even if we may not understand it. It's human nature to doubt things, but doubt is not bad in itself.
Let’s define doubt according to Merriam-Webster. The website says to call into question the truth of being uncertain or in doubt, to lack confidence, distrust, and inclination not to believe or accept, to consider unlikely.
Bible study tools.com says that doubt is used as a negative attitude or action against God. You can read the whole article by going to that site and typing in doubt. How does doubt form? Here are a few possible examples. A parent tells a child they will take them for ice cream, and it doesn’t happen, or they will take them to the park or come home early from work and play games with them. The parent, for whatever reason, does not do it. With what someone says they were going to do something and then doesn’t follow through, it starts to bring doubt into someone’s mind. If this happens consistently, not once every several months, you can see how soon a child would doubt their parent would do as they said they would. Here's another example. We will switch it to the young adult child saying they will come to spend time with their parent. They get busy at college, which may only be an hour or two away, and they come to town to spend time with friends but never show up for a visit with their parents. Maybe they had lunch or dinner plans, but the adult child gets busy with other things consistently, so soon the parent agrees to meet but doubts it will happen.
Another example is marriage; a husband or a wife doesn’t fulfill the duties they have possibly agreed upon as a husband or wife, and many people agree on things when they get married. But things do change. So, just an example, if a husband gets laid off and you don’t see him trying to apply or get work, you doubt that they are trying to work and provide for the household. No one says it’s just the husband who has to provide for the household, just like the wife could decide not to work one day out of the blue, and that may cause doubt in the husband’s mind about their wife's well-being, especially if she always loved working outside of the home.
An excellent example is if you were a student and didn’t get the grades you wanted pretty soon you start to doubt your capabilities. Some. People struggle with test taking, and if they are only graded on tests, they may doubt they know anything. It doesn’t mean they’re not capable. That is not how they demonstrate knowledge. Some people are more hands-on. You have to understand your learning style, not beat yourself up because you don’t learn the way others say you should learn. If you have a lot of doubt about yourself and the way God made you, please go back to the episodes on love. Know that when you’re struggling, you don’t have to doubt your capabilities. Many times, you’ll make it through; yes, you may struggle. I do understand. I know that it was a very difficult time when I was in the College of Pharmacy, but I made it through and was a very good pharmacist. But there were times I doubted if I was even going to make it through.
Here's another great one (been there). Maybe you’re starting a new career, which can be very scary. You don’t feel you have the experience, so you begin to doubt your decision to leave what was comfortable.
Maybe it wasn’t just about leaving a job, but even more significant, sometimes a relationship. And you know, the relationship was awful for your health, but because things got hard after you left, you started to doubt your decision to leave.
When life gets uncomfortable, and we don’t get what we want or deserve, especially after working so hard, we may doubt our purpose. In the working world, the person who does a better job and works hard seems to “deserve” more. The reality is that the person worked hard, not expecting just to receive. Hard work should have benefits, but in this world, it doesn’t always seem fair. Know God’s economy is very different than the world's economy. In our Jesus RX prescription for life workbook, we do have a chapter on finances. It’s a prescription for finance and looks at things through the word of God, not the world system. If you don’t want to wait for those episodes, you can purchase the book, JesusRx Prescription for Life Workbook, on Amazon directly or go to my website, Evapopek.com, to find out where it’s available.
We looked at the definition of doubt, which is when we call into question a truth. Many people ask what truth is, and I highly recommend the truth project. It’s a video series, and it’s very, very good and brings out the truth to you from God’s word, and again, we know what the world says is true. It’s not always true. Do I dear mention COVID? We were all sold that getting a shot would prevent COVID-19, and we soon found out it did not. We were not told the truth. Whether it was because they knew it or not, at the time, they still should not have said it. It was not true. This is my point: we are often told things from the world for the world’s benefit, not our own benefit. We are all human; we make mistakes, there’s no doubt about that. Many foods at the grocery store don’t benefit our health. They have hidden ingredients. I started using the YUKA app. Every time I go shopping. From what the app reveals, I begin to doubt the nutritional value of many foods.
I mentioned the Truth Project before. If you watch it, it will show you how truth is central to God’s mission. God is about truth; God is not a liar ( Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). It’s easy for me to doubt a liar, but again, God is not a liar, so therefore, I don’t doubt His Word.
God doesn’t get exhausted like the single mom or parents who sometimes can’t fulfill what the child wants, but most importantly, sometimes they may not be able to fulfill what a child may need. A child needs time with their parents, and it seems like days fly by and you feel you didn’t give your child what they needed, but know this: God always provides needs for his children. If you need more time with your children, as God, HE WILL PROVIDE. I have a story about that in the JesusRx Prescription for Life Workbook. I will provide many verses in the show notes about everything I’m talking about. They will be listed in hopes you look up, read them aloud, and allow them to sink into your mind, body, and spirit. (Philippians 4:19, Psalm 37:25, Matthew 6:26, 2nd Corinthians 9:18, and Lamentations 3:22-23.)
In keeping us safe, God may not always give us what we ask for. Let’s look at a few examples here on earth from a human parent and the safety of their children. If you have a diabetic child, would you take that child to get ice cream, give them candy bars, or make cake for dessert every evening? Would you stock cookies in the house and feed them starchy foods? Those things would not be good for them. They are not good for any of us, but they could be detrimental to the person with diabetes. I hope you won’t do that. Here’s another example. What if a storm came rushing in with thunder and lightning? Would you take your child to the park? Today, many of our parks have playgrounds with plastic-coated equipment. Back in the day, it was all metal, but regardless, you still would not take your child out in the midst of a storm.
Let's talk about fathers for a moment. Oh, they think storms are incredible, and I know people who would get excited when a storm was coming and get ready to go out to be “in the storm.” I understand there are “storm chasers” out there, and they get a rush by doing that; others do it in the name of education. I’m like, you’re crazy. Why aren’t you staying inside to be safe? I understand that some go looking to see who they can help. If that’s your God calling, go. I remember the monsoons in Arizona. Oh, how the sky would light up! The “dry lightning was very cool and even more incredible if it was at a distance. My husband used to sit by the sliding glass doors or the biggest window we had to see the lightning. I didn’t like it when he would have the girls sit close to the window, too. I felt it was not safe. Just remember that God wants to give good things to his children (Matthew 7:11, James 1:17, John 3:16, Luke 11:13). We can see this in many verses listed in the show notes.
God equips his people. He created you and will do what others in this world may see as impossible. There are many examples in God’s word to show he has done this. Just read the book of John, but better yet, why don’t you start asking people you know here on Earth who know Jesus, who have received Him and are walking with him, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide them? What might have seemed impossible was possible because of Jesus in their life; there were many healings, and there were many financial situations where the glory to God belongs as He opened the floodgates of heaven with provision (Malachi 3:10). If you have known Jesus for a long time write out some of the things that he has done for you and then refer back so that it will reinforce what you know to be true of Jesus in your life. It will relieve some of that doubt when the dark clouds come in. You might want to listen to podcast episode 7 about God coming down to a Jewish girl in New York in a crack house. Robin has seen many miracles since then. God has moved mightily in her life and will in yours if you let Him. She will tell you all day long how faithful God is! It might be good to hear that so that you don’t doubt the power of God in your life or the life of your loved ones. Ultimately, it's about who we want to serve. Many times it’s self.
Since I mentioned God opening the heavens, I had to look up some things. WOW, it’s powerful when God opens the heavens. I’ve listed them in the show notes. He did it in Noah's time (Gen 7:11), and He does it today. If you go to the last book of the Bible, Revelation (Revelation 1:4 and 19:11), God reveals to John in a series of visions, events, and factors related to the end times how the heavens will be open.
Know that you are capable of doing good things in this world. When you receive Christ's righteousness, you have received God's power to be transformed as Jesus was as he rose from the grave and overcame death and sin. We, too, because of this, can overcome death and sin. No, we don’t live on this earth forever. That’s not what it means to overcome death. It doesn’t mean we will never sin again, either. We die to this world; as Christians, we should be dying for all the wants of the flesh and want what our heavenly father wants from us, which is good. I don’t want to live on this earth forever. I don’t know if you do, but there is much to look forward to in eternity with God. Again, know you’re created for good things because God raised Jesus from the dead. He can provide everything he has promised to those believing in Jesus Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 1:19-20, Matthew 19:23-26, Psalm 139:13-16, Romans 8:11, 1 Peter 1:3, Ephesians 1:7-8.
In the chapter Prescription for Love in the Jesus RX prescription for Life workbook, we covered how nothing will separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35-39). Jesus said that everyone who comes to him He will never drive away (John 6:37).
The Book of Jude is short, just one page, so you should read it. Jude was going to write about salvation to his friends. As I looked up a bit more information on that, it said that he was more concerned about the false teachings entering the church and how it would take away from the new believers if they weren’t strong in the faith. As I looked up more information in different study Bibles, I saw that Jude is a brother of Jesus. They have the same mom, but Jude does not address himself as a savior’s brother. He called himself a bondservant of Jesus. He chose the humble path, calling himself a servant, not his brother. I kept going into this as I went on, but the Lord stopped me and taught me another lesson. I want to be known as a daughter of the King Most High. That’s a privilege and comes with much responsibility. What I need to be first is the humble daughter of the Most High King, always ready to serve my King, Father God. I should never hold that title, making my priority about receiving benefits a daughter of a king would receive. I know there’s nothing that I can do to earn my standing with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I got that standing because of the price Jesus paid. Yes, we should be proud to belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but it shouldn’t be something that makes one prideful or boastful in oneself. Look at me; I’m the king's daughter; I’m deserving. He will give me all sorts of things because of my standing with him. I want to make this very clear…If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you DO NOT NEED TO DOUBT YOUR STANDING WITH GOD, KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS. I CAN BOAST IN JESUS. I am now able to serve God, my Father. I need to remember first that I am my Father’s servant. There are many lessons for us when we read God’s Word, pray, and ask God to reveal what we need. The Holy Spirit will lead you to do what you are called to and go where He calls you to. Let the one able to open the heavens and pour out blessings over you do it! (Galatians 2:16, Romans 3:21-28, Romans 10:10, John 14:26, Acts 2:38)
As I said before, Jude originally was going to write about salvation to his friends, but he thought it was more important to teach those who were new to Jesus and His teachings to be aware of those who were coming in to lead others astray. This is how the people leading others astray were described: grumblers, complainers walking according to their own lust, and they mouth great swelling words because they were trying to flatter people to gain an advantage. Oh, I need to examine myself. Do I grumble or complain about God and what He is doing or not doing? Check out episode 14, on peace and what Job went through. Jude reminds those he is speaking to how they have been sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus, as well as the words that were spoken of by the Apostles. They said that they would be mockers who would walk according to their ungodly lusts. (Matthew 7:15, 2nd Corinthians 11:13-15)
Jude gives excellent advice on How to maintain a life with God. This will keep those dark clouds from covering you your whole life. Jude tells us how we can maintain our Life with God.
1. Building yourself up on your most Holy Faith (not things of this world)
2. Praying in the Holy Spirit
3. Keeping yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life
4. Show compassion to those wavering and to others, and reach out so that they may be snatched away from the enemy and the fire that destroys.
May they be shown the fire of God that refines ( Zechariah 13: 9, Isaiah 48:10, 1 Peter 1:7, Proverbs 17:3). We must be reminded that God truly knows our hearts.
As we put into practice the things of God, don’t doubt Jesus is able to keep us from stumbling and present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. If the dark clouds of doubt and who God is start to enter, start
praising God our savior who alone is wise,
be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power, both now and forever, amen.
Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful! (Hebrews 10:23)
This may seem like a lot, so remember you can always work through the prescription for doubt on your own. It’s chapter 4 in the JesusRx Prescription for Life workbook. You can find its availability on my website, evapopek.com, or go directly to Amazon. Thanks a bunch for being here, and don’t doubt I’ll be praying for those dark clouds to subside.
