Have you ever struggled with discontentment or envy when you see others prospering or when you see the things that others have? Maybe as a believer, you struggle with this as you observe unbeliever’s lives, and how they seem to have no worries and no struggles. They seem to excel in everything they do. It can be very confusing, and it can cause us to doubt our faith; to misunderstand what it’s all about or even wonder if it’s all worth it. So, what do we do when we struggle with these doubts? David had the same struggles in Psalm 73. He was right there wrestling with those very same issues.
But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. - Psalm 73:16-17
He was struggling with understanding how people who do not care anything about God just seem to have no worries. He even questioned his position as a believer. Why should I even do this? Is this useless? Is this all in vain.? It caused him to doubt until you get to the very middle of the psalm, the turning point in verses 16 and 17, where David recognized that trying to understand all this caused him to feel hopeless, it felt useless and left him with more questions than answers.
Then it says, UNTIL. Until he entered the sanctuary. In the Old Testament, the sanctuary would have been the temple or the tabernacle, but in reality, it represents God‘s presence. Today, God‘s presence is experienced through his Holy Spirit as we read his word, as we see Jesus in Scripture, as we spend time in church wrestling with these doubts and questions. This is where we will find our answers: in his word and in his presence. If we look for it outside of ourselves, or in this world we will continue to falter, and we will even be tempted to turn away from our faith. Perhaps we need to detangle from some faulty beliefs we have adopted, but the answers won’t be found by watching TikTok or on social media, the answers are found in his presence and in his word processing these things with his people.
Don’t let those doubts draw you away from his word and from his people, instead let those doubts push you towards God, leaning into his word, searching Scripture, figuring out what is truly the purpose of all this. Is this all useless or am I on the right track here? If you do not have a church that allows you to wrestle with those doubts just like David wrestled in Psalm 73, then find a church, a body of believers who are not afraid of the hard questions, who aren’t afraid to give you space to process these things and detangle the faulty beliefs in your heart and mind.
These faulty beliefs are joy killers, they can kill your joy faster than anything else because they take our focus off of Jesus. We look around at everything around us, what we have or don’t have or what we see on social media. We doubt our faith. We doubt our purpose. We wonder why we are even doing all of this, until we come into his presence and to his word. This is where we are going to find contentment. Where we are going to find rest. Where we are going to find answers to our doubts. Where we rediscover joy.
What is killing your joy? How can you put yourself in a position to voice your doubts and hear the truth spoken that drives those doubts away?
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