I sit writing this just moments after I sent out a tweet I have been mulling over nearly all day: "If there were never anything to make us doubt, there would be no reason for faith. Questions are the fertile ground of confidence. #Faith"
Hebrews 11:6 says: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." God could easily overpower us with his glory, making it impossible for us to refuse him. But the very nature of his express plan forbids that approach; we will come willingly or not at all. Thus it is that he largely veils himself, giving us enough proof for reasonable minds to believe in him, but not so much that no one could refuse to do so if they would rather reject him.
Even for those who do believe, though, faith never stops being a necessity to be pleasing to God. In fact, his children are often faced with far more reasons to doubt than anyone else.
Having studied the Bible for 36 years now, I am far more taken with the times God allowed room for fear and doubt and questions than I am with the times he eliminated all of the above.
Joseph was given the promise that all of his brothers would bow before him. In short order thereafter, he found himself cast into a pit, taken up out of the pit and sold into slavery in Egypt, then imprisoned on false charges. He was 17 when given the promise; he was 39 when it finally came to pass. He had 22 years full of reasons to doubt and fear and question, 22 years when it seemed as if not a single prayer was ever answered, yet he lived by faith in spite of it all.
John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ, the man whom Jesus himself described as the greatest ever born of woman. Yet, when he found himself in prison, he sent his followers to ask Jesus if he was really the one they had been looking for. Yet he still held so tightly to his faith that Jesus spoke glowingly of him before the multitudes.
David was anointed king, yet it was 20 years or more till that fully materialized. Along the way he endured a dozen attempts on his life by Saul; he was chased like an animal into the wilderness and, at one point, even despaired of life. And yet, it was during those years of running that he wrote some of the most glowing psalms of confidence, right along side psalms expressing his fears and doubts.
Faith does not grow in the bright sunshine and warm breezes, high on the mountaintops of peace and prosperity. It grows in the raging storms, the deepest valleys, the most trying of conflicts. God allows us to go through things that make us doubt, he allows us to experience the times that breed questions for which there seem to be no answers, because those are the times when we actually have the opportunity to demonstrate faith.
I have listened to well-meaning preachers say that we should never ask God "why?" But it was Jesus himself, on Calvary, who cried out that very word to his own father.
I do not know all that is ahead in 2016. But I do know that the God who prizes faith above all else will graciously give us enough reasons for doubt and fear and questions that we can, if we choose to, exercise and grow our faith.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and and the author of several books available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.