Have you ever doubted whether or not you did something? Did I turn the oven off? I’m positive I did, but I could be wrong? Did I unplug the iron? Did I lock the front door? You see my point. Sometimes having faith in knowing that something was done, or will be done, is really what we all need.
But what happens when your doubt is more serious? When it leads you straight into a valley? David wrote about that valley in the 23rd Psalm, about going through the valley of the shadow of death. The key is knowing that you’re going through it and not camping out or living there.
David may have forgotten for a while that the valley is a process to get through, not a place to live.
Often, our tough moments in the valley can paralyze us. Instead of taking the next step with God, we stop. Our minds begin to wander from the truth of God’s love. We look at our life and think, I love God, and I gave everything to Him. But the optics of my life make it seem as if He doesn’t love me. Those thoughts begin the downward spiral into the dark.
The Spiraling Effect of Doubt
Spiritual doubt is part of most valleys. But how did it creep into David’s mind? Time after time, God had protected David as he was on the run. David had fully trusted God to rescue him from Saul.
But then, something shifted in David. He got marathon tired. Some call it “war-weary.” In his exhaustion, David’s thoughts gave way to fear. History records that he thought, Someday Saul is gonna get me. At that point, fear gave way to doubt.
David began to doubt his purpose. Even worse, he doubted God. This thrust David into his greatest test. If he was going to fulfill his future as a king, he was going to have to overcome his own doubt and fear.
The Three Kinds of Doubt
Doubting for David started the same way it does for all of us. With a thought. We encounter three types of doubt on our hero’s journey.
Intellectual doubt creeps in when it seems as though what God has whispered to us is inconsistent with our human experience. We haven’t experienced it, so we can’t believe it. When we read about God’s miracles, we think, That must have been myth or legend, and if God’s word is not true in those instances, then maybe it’s not true for me, either.
We allow doubt to hit our pause button. Everything stops. When we pause, we don’t pass. When we stop, we don’t take next steps.
The second kind of doubt is moral doubt. Moral doubt moves in when we don’t like God’s commands or when following the path He’s given us seems too difficult. We rationalize our doubt. We think, I guess I don’t believe in God or His word after all. This is a convenient way of relieving guilt or escaping accountability. David never stopped believing in God altogether, but his doubt took him deeper and deeper into the valley. That meant further and further from the comfort of God’s unending love.
Circumstantial doubt is the third kind of doubt. It comes when we go through a long period of difficulty. Adversity wears on us. The spread of illness doesn’t stop. The school year stretches on. The friends are still mad. Relief never comes. We begin to doubt that God is in control of the circumstances. If He was, we figure, this wouldn’t be happening.
For nearly a decade, David lived the life of a fugitive, constantly in danger, escaping death day in and day out. Eventually, he succumbed to feeling sorry for himself. After all, he was innocent. He had spared Saul’s life. Didn’t he deserve better? Where was God? Why didn’t He do something?
David had repeatedly witnessed God’s protection, but now he thought that maybe God had given up on him. He let what he thought were rational thoughts trump love. His love was shaken. He’d shaken loose from his hold on God.
Haven’t we all experienced moments of deep and often depressing doubt? At times, we come up against difficulty or adversity and reach for a quick boost instead of tying ourselves to the truth of God’s love. We tend to detour into addictions, wrong friendships, or the pseudo-friendships of social media. To make it to the end of the marathon, we have to attach ourselves to God’s love and truth. It’s the only way to the end of the race—the way out of the valley.
Doubt Unchecked
Doubt left unchecked in our hearts can cause us to defect—to give up on God. As so often happens when anyone gives up on God, David made a major mistake. He defected to the enemy camp.
Once David started dwelling on the first negative thought, Someday Saul’s gonna get me, he descended into more negative thoughts. He shifted from thinking, God will always protect me to I’m going to die. I can’t depend on God, so I’ll take matters into my own hands.
David’s doubt led to a separation from God’s love, which led to a lack of dependence on God. From there, David descended into defection from God and His people. At this point, his thinking was so twisted David thought that hanging out with Goliath’s family and friends was his best bet. What kind of crazy is it when David believes that he is safest among his nation’s enemies?
Where’s Your Focus?
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar called David’s negative mindset “stinkin’ thinkin’.” Zig said we need “a daily checkup from the neck up” to stay in the right frame of mind. Anytime we emphasize and verbalize the negatives in our lives, we are headed for trouble. When we dwell on our problems, we are done for.
Are you constantly thinking about bad optics? Are you pessimistic or critical? Is your negativity spilling over into your behavior? You might be in the process of defecting from God.
We have to think about what we are thinking about. When we dwell on our problems and make them the focus of our lives, we take God and his steadfast love out of the equation. When we defect from God, we never get out of the valley. We never leave the wilderness to do the great things that God has planned for us.
We have to shift our focus to the trail ahead. We have to lock on to the purpose that God has for us and the love He surrounds us with. We have to never let go. It is not His intention for us to stay in the valley, just to learn in the valley. David finally realized this, and you will too!
I share more about how David got past the bad optics to live the life that God called him to in my book, Overliked: Finding Direction, Courage, and Meaningful Relationships in a Society Crippled by Social Media. I invite you to dive deeper with me into how you, too, can get past the bad optics to the authentic life God has planned for you.
Until next time, stay strong in your faith that Jesus loves you like no other.
~ Pastor Rob
aka P-Ro