Frederick Buechner (Wishful Thinking, p. 20) said: “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” Sunday school curriculum writer Brett Younger (Smith & Helwys, Sept. 2011) agrees with Buechner and adds, “The best doubt leads to deeper faith and greater courage.”
Is this true? Is doubt good?
Jesus rescued Peter from drowning and said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). Jesus told his disciples, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt . . . you can say to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the sea,and it will be done” (Matthew 21:21). Jesus said to Thomas, “Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27).
James says, “He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8).
Doubt in a biblical context means to be without resource, to be double-minded, or up in the air. Doubting God suggests a weak, unstable faith. Not good.
