II Corinthians 2:11…in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
One of the schemes of the devil is to introduce doubt into your life. I think the most strategic way he does that is by trying to get you to doubt the Word of God
Think with me about the reality that the Word of God is the foundation for the Christian life. How do we come to understand the Plan of Salvation? We read about it in the Word. How do we uncover the consequences of sin? We read about them in the Word. How do we gain insight into how to have a Christian marriage? We read about it in the Word. How do we learn about the role of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life? We read about it in the Word. How do we learn to overcome life’s tests and trials? We read about it in the Word. How do we discern God’s will for our lives? We read about it in the Word. How do we grow in our faith and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? By reading the Word of God. How is Satan exposed for the thief, liar, destroyer and murderer that he is? God exposes Him in the Word.
It only makes sense, then, that Satan would want to try to discredit and distort the Word of God as it is the basis, the foundation for the totality of the Christian life. Satan wants you to believe that God’s Word is fable or fairy tale. Satan cannot tell the truth. It’s a trap. Don’t fall for it.
You cannot say you believe God if you doubt His Word. When Satan attacked Jesus in the Wilderness Temptations that preceded His earthly ministry, telling Him to turn stones into bread so that He could satisfy His hunger because He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus reminded Satan that the Word of God was the foundation for sustenance and spiritual strength and that it could also sustain Him during a time of physical weakness. He said, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4. Jesus was quoting Scripture to the devil and was adamant that the Word of God was the foundation for spiritual life. Jesus didn’t count on anything physical to sustain Him. He believed on and counted on the Word of God.
Are we as convinced? Do we trust the Word of God enough to sustain us in times of testing and temptation or do we doubt its efficacy and look for a quick source of comfort from the physical world?
Doubting the Word of God, entertaining that it really doesn’t mean what it says, that clear commands of God can mean different things to different people, believing you can suspend the consequences that are stated in it, is a trap of the enemy. Don’t fall for it.
A second way that I believe Satan seeks to get you entangled in the trap of doubt is to get you to Doubt the Goodness of God.
Satan wants your focus on your pain and all that is “wrong” with your life. He wants to get you fixed on what you desire but don’t have. He wants you disrupted in your spirit to the point where you doubt the goodness of God.
Gideon, a guy God raised up as a leader in the Old Testament, almost went down the road of doubt in Judges 6. You see, Satan wants us to believe that moments of struggle indicate God has left us alone, that God has abandoned us. We read in Judges 6 that the Israelites had gone off the rails. They weren’t just apathetic towards God, but they were doing evil, and there are consequences for doing evil. Because God had a plan to draw them back, He allowed them to be given into the hands of the Midianites who oppressed them to the point where the Israelites had to hide and live in mountain clefts and caves. Whenever they planted their crops, the Midianites ruined their crops and killed their livestock. That is a pretty bad state of affairs for sure.
Can you agree with me that no parent is a good parent who won’t discipline their children? Our Heavenly Father is a good parent, a perfect one. God’s heart was breaking for His people. If He didn’t do something to discipline them, they wouldn’t recover. God wasn’t going to stand by and watch His children self-destruct. That wouldn’t make Him good, now would it?
Well, the Israelites cried out to God for help, and in His goodness, because He is patient with His children, because He wanted them to understand why they were suffering and to learn from their mistakes, He told them in verses 7-10. And then in verse 11, the angel of the LORD visited Gideon while he was working, and this is what he said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
“If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” “The Lord has abandoned us.” These were the actual thoughts of Gideon in that moment. It sounds like the seeds of doubt to me. Have you ever felt that way? Have you felt betrayed or abandoned by God? Satan wants you to believe God has changed His mind regarding how He feels about you. Satan wants you to believe God has washed His hands of you. He wants you to believe God has deserted to you. Not so, my friends.
Satan has launched an assault on God’s character to get you to doubt His goodness. He’s got a mudslinging campaign going on to try to tarnish God’s reputation and to distort your view of God’s heart towards you. If you think God is causing your pain or allowing unnecessary trials, or if you believe God is holding out on you, restricting you, limiting you and placing you under some kind of burdensome way of life, then you won’t trust His goodness and believe He wants the best for you. God gives us commands, and He disciplines us because He loves us and doesn’t want us trapped by the false promises of sin. He isn’t trying to hold you back from anything good, but Satan wants you to think that is the case. Satan wants to twist the commands of God to get you to doubt God’s goodness.
And if Satan can get you to think God has left you in the middle of some bad situation, he can lead you to despair and to be overcome by your circumstances. In the case of Gideon, the Angel of the Lord revealed the goodness of God towards His people by explaining to Gideon that God had been there all along, that God had heard the cries of His people, that God was going to use Gideon to deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Midianites. Gideon could hardly believe what he heard. He said, “There’s no way I could do such a thing. I am small and weak,” but the LORD answered him saying, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all of the Midianites, leaving none alive.” God was going to be with Gideon and God was going to free the Israelites completely. He was going to destroy their enemy completely. They weren’t just going to get a little bit of relief or a small reprieve or a few months of breathing room. They were going to be freed completely. They would be able to live in safety. They would be able to return to their homes and rebuild their lives.
Listen to me, it is a good God who will discipline you when you need it. It is a good God who gives you the opportunity to start over when you have failed. It is a good God who will take care of your enemy. It is a good God who will enable you to rebuild what sin has destroyed in your life.
God has not left us, friends. He knows what we are all going through. He knows how hard many have had it with this pandemic and the political turmoil that saturates the landscape of life in America. He knows what a toll it is taking on our economy, our families, our educational system, our social structures and our way of life. Where is He? He is with us, and for those who are truly looking to Him for rescue, we are seeing Him more clearly than ever.
We need to get our eyes off of what things look like in the natural and trust the goodness of God. Satan is trying to give you many reasons to doubt God’s goodness and love for you right now, don’t fall for it. It’s a trap. Don’t allow your circumstances to put God’s goodness on trial. Just trust Him and cry out to Him. He is there and is waiting for you to ask Him for His help.
Will you stand with me on the Word of God and the character of God? God is the truth-teller, and He is always good in every circumstance. He is making a way for all who place their full confidence in Him. If you are going to emerge from this political turmoil and pandemic spiritually stronger and free from anxiety and fear, you need to trust God. The opposite of doubt is faith. It takes faith to walk with God. It takes faith to see the unseen. It takes faith to move forward in your understanding of spiritual things. Satan doesn’t dwell in the realm of faith. He is at work in the realm of doubt. If you want to be where God is at work, if you want to experience the place where hope is alive, if you want to soar to the place where God is actively present in power, if you want to have a front row seat to the plan of God, no matter how unusual it may seem, step out of the trap of doubt and into the realm of faith.
