Ep. 231: Is Doubt a Sin?

Welcome to the indoubt Podcast, where we explore the challenging topics that young adults often face. Each week, we talk with guests who help answer questions of faith, life, and culture, connecting them to our daily experiences and God’s word. For more info on indoubt, visit indoubt.ca or indoubt.com

Erika:

Hey, it’s Erika. And welcome back to another episode of indoubt. This week, our guest is pastor, author, and podcaster, Tim Elmore. Tim is joining us from Ontario today to talk with Isaac about doubt. What is it and how do we have a healthy relationship with it? When we go through periods of doubt in our faith in God, is that just highlighting our lack of faith? This is a great conversation that will hopefully answer some of your questions and fears surrounding doubt. Hope you enjoy the episode.

Isaac Dagneau:

Hey, welcome to Indoubt, my name is Isaac, one of the hosts of indoubt. With me on the show today is pastor and fellow podcaster, as well as many of the things, which he’ll fill you in on, Tim Elmore. So thanks for being on the show today, Tim.

Tim Elmore:

Hey, thanks for having me, Isaac. It’s good to be here.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah, let’s just take some time, like, I don’t know you.

Tim Elmore:

Sure.

Isaac Dagneau:

What’s your story? Fill me in, fill our listeners in on who Tim is.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah, so quickly, I guess, I grew up in Arkansas, so I’m a Southern boy. About the age of 28, 30, God did a lot moving around in my life. So I had always, like at the age of 18 was on church staff as a youth pastor kind of a thing, and had been serving in churches. At that point, decided that God was giving me an opportunity to go and serve on the mission field, so I did a couple of years in Argentina, and a couple of years in Peru, and now I’m a missionary in Canada. A lot of people would say, “No, you’re a pastor,” because I am pastor of Memorial Baptist Church in Stratford, Ontario. But at the same time, I always like to remind people, “Until I can get biscuits and gravy at the local diner, I’m a missionary.”

Isaac Dagneau:

Yes, that’s so good. Have you learned all the different Canadian lingo slowly?

Tim Elmore:

Yeah. So, working on that. I’ve been here, I guess, just over eight years. I pastored in Toronto for seven years and I’ve been a year and a half now in Stratford, so I’ve been here. I’m not getting used to winter. I don’t plan on it, but, yeah.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah. No, that’s good. A friend of my in-laws, actually from India, he’s a worship leader in India. He’s come up a couple times up to Canada here and it’s just so funny to see because he’ll walk outside on a day when we’ll just wear a light jacket, and he’ll have a scarf and all these big fluffy jackets on, and it’s just different. So I’m sure that in the winter time you’ll have multiple layers.

Tim Elmore:

You know, it’s not the cold that bothers me. It’s just the length. Just the marathon of winter. These false springs that pop up and then it snows again and yeah. It’s okay.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah, that’s good. I’m interested though. When you said you were on 28, 29, God was doing some work. I’m curious as to what kind of work he was doing? You don’t have to go into everything, but just curious.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah. I’d been asked to do a guest preaching at this church. In that, I was preaching through the story of Jesus and the rich young man, and how the rich young man says, “This is what I want from you. I want eternal life.” So he’s asking, and then ,”What does it cost?” It’s a transaction. “I want eternal life and what do I have to do?” And how he takes that. It’s a lot of times like when I go shopping, maybe it’s not how you go shopping, but when I go shopping and I see something I really like, I go, “Oh,” and then I flip the price tag and I go, “Oh,” and I just put the price tag and put it right back where it was because it was more than I was willing to give. My encouragement to everyone there was we’re not shopping with God. God has given us his commission. He’s called us to something, and we need to pursue that, and not draw lines in the sand to say, “God, I will only follow you this far,” because that is not saving faith. It was one of those things where I was preaching, and I don’t think I ever stopped the message. Because someone would have said something to me like, “Why did you stop and just stare at the ceiling for a while?” But somehow, the only thing I could think about for the rest of my message was not the words coming out of my mouth. But. “Hey, Tim, you know for a fact that you have an invitation to be a missionary teacher for Buenos Aires International Christian Academy in Argentina for the next year. What are you holding onto? What line have you drawn in the sand? And why don’t you follow up with this opportunity?” That really got me, and I went home, and I opened up that contract. I was like, “You know what? I’m going to do it. It’s a year. I’m going to give it.” I reread the contract and somehow I missed it the first time that it was actually two years. At that point, I was like, “This is really going to be a thing, isn’t it? This line is going to keep getting pushed back further and further.” And so I signed that contract, and I’ve not been home, but for a visit here and there since.

Isaac Dagneau:

Wow. Wow. That’s amazing.

Tim Elmore:

Now 41, so it’s been over 10 years.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah. No, that’s great. I love that. It’s interesting. I feel like I heard recently a testimony or a reference to a testimony of a man that got converted in his own sermon as he was preaching. He was preaching the gospel and he experienced regeneration. So the Lord can speak to us through our own preaching and that’s exactly what he did.

Tim Elmore:

And if he doesn’t, we’re probably not preaching anything worth hearing.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah, exactly. That’s right. Thanks for sharing that, Tim, by the way. Before we jump into our conversation, you’re also the cohost of the In And Through Podcasts. So quickly for our listeners, if people are listening to Indoubt, they’re probably listening to other podcasts, so this is your two second appeal.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah. So, so this is what we’re doing with In and Through. People don’t do Wednesday night Bible studies anymore. It’s just not fit into our schedule. And pastors try to bring them back and they don’t work out. So we thought, “How do we meet that need in the modern era?” And so we did a podcast. It’s my associate pastor and I, right now, we’re leading our church through a chronological reading of the Bible, so every week we get together and we record. We’re going to do the whole Bible in a year chronologically. We record the snippets of giving a theological and a historical foundation of where we’re at in that passage, have some fun chatting about what God’s showing us through the week. Then we throw up a lot of bonus episodes. Like right now we’re doing some bonus work stuff on the different elements of the church because we just miss the gathering so much. Why do we announcements the way that we do announcements? And that doesn’t sound like a very theological kind of thing to talk about, but really it is. It’s something we have to consider that God is doing great things in our church and giving us opportunities. Let’s approach that as an act of worship. How we choose the songs, why we don’t choose some songs, those kinds of things. So, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. We like to just sort of go round and round about it, but that’s In and through.

Isaac Dagneau:

That’s cool. No, that sounds great. So yeah, if you’re listening right now and you’re interested in that, then you can check out In and Through Podcast.

Tim Elmore:

Inandthrough.org or the Gospel Coalition Canada the other way.

Isaac Dagneau:

Cool. That’s awesome. That’s so good. All right, let’s jump in here, Tim. Doubt and uncertainty, this is something that many people, maybe all people to some extent experience, but maybe the first thing we can do, maybe start at is defining doubt. Defining doubt, how it relates to uncertainty. So yeah, what is doubt? How do you think about doubt? Because I feel like some people have different ideas.

Tim Elmore:

No, I agree, yeah. I actually did this, like look up the definition, how is the word used, and what are the different ways it can be used? The first definition that I saw in that was uncertainty. And interestingly enough, I looked up uncertainty and the first word given was doubt. So the two were being used as synonyms, the definitions of each other. And I thought “There are moments maybe when that’s true, but I don’t think universally true.” So I would say this, “I would say doubt is to lack confidence in something.” I doubt this is going to work. I doubt they’re going to come through. To see something and to lack confidence in that thing. Whereas, I think uncertainty is more to have questions or to be unsure about something. So yes, they can be synonymous in a way that you might doubt your ability to do something. You’re uncertain as to whether you could do it and maybe past experience has told you this is not going to work out. And so for that, you experience doubt that is uncertainty or uncertainty that is doubt, and the two are together. But you can also do things like I think you can look at God’s will. We know that God has a plan for us that he is going to carry out. I can be uncertain as to what that is, but I don’t doubt that it exists. Does that make sense?

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah.

Tim Elmore:

Or I believe that there will be a future. I’m uncertain as to what that will look like, but I don’t doubt that it would exist. If that makes sense? That’s the relationship and the tension that I see inside of doubt and uncertainty.

Isaac Dagneau:

So basically when you say that though then… this is an obvious point, but I think it’s important for people to hear… that you can be a genuine Christian and experience uncertainty-

Tim Elmore:

Oh, 100%.

Isaac Dagneau:

…and doubt to some extent. I just think that’s important.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah. I was going to mention it later, in areas that I would say to resource on this Barnabas Piper just did a fantastic book… He wrote it years back, but it’s just been re-released, called, Help My Unbelief, where he wrestles with this and he challenges Christians that won’t doubt. And he says, “Yeah, how are you ever going to grow? Or are you just burying your head in the sand? How is it that you could ever grow in your faith if you’re not willing to ask questions and admit that there are some things that you’re not sure about?”

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah. No, that’s good. That’s really good. What are your thoughts on this idea though of this skepticism and the spirit of skepticism? Because I feel like there’s some people that you talk to, and whether they’re Christian or not Christian, it’s more so with those I don’t think that are. They will rest on saying that they’re doubting these things. They’re uncertain about, let’s say the Bible, how it was brought together, the existence of God suffering. But it almost as if the idea of just the spirit of skepticism, it doesn’t really seem like they’re willing to move forward. There’s in that realm. Have you experienced that before with some people, where it just doesn’t seem like they’re actually willing to listen maybe? I don’t know.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah, I think so. I’m by no means a career apologist, but in the field of apology, they talk about willful disbelief. That they have chosen to disbelieve. And it doesn’t matter what evidence you put before them. They’ve already made up their mind.

Isaac Dagneau:

Right, exactly.

Tim Elmore:

They don’t want to believe in that thing and you’re not going to persuade them with evidence. Oftentimes, people will say like, “I hear you and that sounds great. You’re probably even right, but…”

Isaac Dagneau:

But. Right, because they want to stay in those beliefs that they have.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah.

Isaac Dagneau

Yeah. Okay, interesting. I had a conversation recently, Tim, with a young man, and it was a really good conversation, and it was really just blunt and straightforward, but respectful. One of the things that was holding him back from just confessing and believing in the Lord Jesus was his uncertainty and his doubt of the goodness of God, because of issues that have gone on, like terrible things that have gone on in his life. I’m just thinking about, for myself and I’m sure for yourself as a missionary and as a pastor, and for many listening as well, who are doubting the goodness of God in terms of suffering and the things that… The realities that go on in their life and the evil that really can happen in their life, doubting the goodness of God. So how do we then help counsel and help work through those issues of uncertainty of God’s goodness with them? Or how have you done that in the past?

Tim Elmore:

I think first we have to ask the question. This is the problem of pain, C. S. Lewis. This is something that, again, I keep tiptoeing into the apologetics field until someone actually challenges me to try something apologetics. But it is very common for people to come against the idea of faith based on the benevolence of God. Is God good? And if he is good, why does bad exist? It’s been proved, even by secular thought, that just because God is good, doesn’t mean that there can’t be bad things happening. And sometimes God uses these things. All things work together for good, for those who love him, and are called according to his purpose. What I always try to do is I always try to cause people to think about what it means to be sick? When you’re sick and you have pain, is that pain a bad thing? “Of course, I don’t want pain and I want it gone.” But if that pain causes me to realize, “Hey, there’s something deeper going on. There’s something here that has to be addressed.” There’s a cancer, there’s an infection, whatever it might be, “This pain is a way of letting me know I need to seek help in this.” I think pain in our life is often that. We have the option to say, “Well, I don’t like that means, the means by which you’re going about getting my attention. And so I’m going to ignore you.” Or we have the means to say, “Hey, you know what? Let’s lean into this and see where it goes and see what you have for me.” I think this whole COVID experience is going to really come down to this. Like here we’ve been brought to a standstill and people keep asking the question, “How are we going to come out on the other side?” A lot of that has to do with us. Are we going to wish the pain away and keep wishing for normal? Or are we going to learn from it? Are we going to grow from it? Are we going to say, “God, speak to me through this. Don’t let’s not waste this time, God. Use this in a way to grow me.” And I don’t know how it is that you’re seeing people handle this pain. What do you think? Do you see people really leaning it or just wishing it away?

Isaac Dagneau:

That’s a good question. I think we can say one thing with our lips and maybe believe something else in our hearts obviously. All of us struggle with that. God is the only faithful one when it comes to what he says and who he is. But yeah, your question, I think that a lot of people will say the right thing. They’ll say that we do want to grow from this. We do want to go. But I think that for a lot of people and including, if I’m being honest, with myself to some extent, there is that sense of just wanting things to go back to where they were because they were just comfortable. It was comfortable. You’re able to do what you wanted to do. But I think because of people’s willingness to at least voice the fact that they do want to come out with a greater, whatever it might be. A greater appreciation of the gathering of the church, allowing the pain of isolation, and so on and so forth, to draw us closer to the Lord. I think we can hopefully journey from the mouth to the heart, if they’re at least willing to vocalize it. Do you know what I’m saying?

Tim Elmore:

Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. Like in the same way that we would acknowledge that we have needs, like I need to go to the gym, I need to start eating better. And I might today, but we’ll see again about tomorrow.

Isaac Dagneau:

Are you actually being serious or is that just part of the illustration?

Tim Elmore:

I’m too busy today. I’ll get to it another day.

Isaac Dagneau:

Oh, okay. Of course, of course. Okay, I see. Yeah, I get that. No, that’s good. Just to pull back, the conversation that we’re having so far, it does sound like in many conversations about doubt and uncertainty, apologetics is a reality that we have to face. But I think for a lot of people, apologetics, and even for myself to some extent, the idea of apologetics, it just seems really intimidating. Because when we think about apologetics, for people that have been in the church for some time that know apologetics a little bit. Because people outside, I don’t know they know exactly what that means. But they’ll think of people like Ravi Zacharias and others, William Lane Craig and others. These minds are mean are just massive and it can be intimidating. So when it comes to apologetics, like even for yourself, you were using some philosophical apologetics there when you were talking about suffering and so on. I guess maybe this isn’t a question it’s more of a comment, but we have to make use of some sort of apologetic as we discuss issues of doubt and uncertainty.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah. And here’s the reason why I really drive people in that direction. One, the purpose of apologetics for the sake of convincing others is a secondary purpose for apologetics. The primary purpose for apologetics is answering my own questions and strengthening my faith by informing myself. And so I think that’s the primary role of apologetics. And secondly, I think if we’re going to ask deep questions and not look for deep philosophical answers, we’re getting right back into the willful disbelief. If we truly want to ask hard questions, we have to be willing to do the work to find difficult answers. That’s just how it works. I think it’s disingenuous to say, “Oh, I’ve got these big questions that slow me down or stop me. But also, I’m going to Netflix rather than figure them out.” That’s disingenuous. Maybe there’s a tough love, smile, and way to approach that with people. But yeah, I would say sometimes we just got to be called out and say, “Hey, if this is really a stumbling block, why don’t you try to crawl over it and see what happens?”

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah. That’s good. I think for those listening too that are Christians and you are taking your faith seriously, what Tim just said I think is just really important because we might have friends and family that are struggling with something. It will be important for us to help walk them through maybe over that hump because I think a lot of people need help to get over their quick temptation to have these big questions, and then quickly result as to the flesh and whether it go to Netflix or whatever. But we’ll have to help people journey to the path of answers. And not necessarily just telling them what they need to know and this you need to listen to me kind of thing, but helping them find own answers like Jesus did with asking questions. It’s the same sort of thing. Let’s think about this idea of God’s perspective in our doubt and in our uncertainty. It’s one of the questions you had suggested and I think it’s a great question. So you mentioned, does this show our faithlessness when we experience realities of doubt and uncertainty? When I was flipping through some of the New Testament just about doubt, it seems like… And I haven’t done all the [inaudible 00:19:33] analysis of these different verses, which obviously play a massive part. But places like in James One, where it talks about praying for wisdom, but don’t doubt. Because if you doubt, then he’s almost giving a condition on the answer of the prayer for wisdom. Many others, Peter is walking on the water, “Oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt?” So obviously, there seems to be this reality of faith and then doubt on one side. So yeah, let’s talk about that.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah. I think in the James passage… just flipping into it here… there are a couple of things here that I think are worth pointing out. I’ll just read it to everyone, so that we have in front.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah, that’s good.

Tim Elmore:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that they will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Now, what it is that we doubt, I think could be two things here. One, it could be, we would doubt whether or not God will give us that wisdom. Two, it could be whether or not wisdom that we are given is wisdom or whether or not there’s a better way. Had a conversation with a guy one time saying, “Opening the Bible and saying this is the biblical way to go forward in this.” And he said, “Well, okay, let’s do this. Things need to change now. I’m just going to do my thing. And then once I get this sort of ship landed, we’ll figure out what the Bible has to say about it. We’ll move forward.” Right?

Isaac Dagneau:

Right.

Tim Elmore:

And at that point you just want to be like, “I wish I had recorded that so I could play it back to you and you could hear it out loud.” But in that, what’s happen is he has received the wisdom of God. And in receiving the wisdom of God said, “I don’t think that that’s the best thing going forward.” So that’s where I think that second part can come into play. The other is to just believe, to ask the question, “Well, if I pray for wisdom, then what? Do I really believe that God’s going to give it to me? And maybe he will, maybe he won’t.” Those kinds of things. And God says, “No, there’s a reason for you…” A person who comes because they lack wisdom is someone who has doubt and uncertainty. He’s not condemning them for it. He’s giving the instruction, “Ask for it. And when you do, expect to receive it.” The question is how do we receive it? Again, maybe do a little work.

Isaac Dagneau:

Right, yeah. If I’m going to God for… There’s some trial, some issue that I’m experiencing, trials of various kinds right there. If I’m experiencing that, I’m going to go to God. I’m going to ask for wisdom. If I’m praying with an already settled attitude of faith in my heart that I’m not actually going to receive the wisdom of God with the attitude to obey. Is that the kind of prayer that James is saying, “That’s the kind of doubting that you cannot do. It’s not going to work”?

Tim Elmore:

Yeah, Isaac, I’d say that’s the perfect way to sum the two up. Am I going to receive this with an attitude of obedience, right?

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah. No, that’s good. That’s really good. So back at the beginning of our conversation, you talked about doubt and uncertainty. We have uncertainty in terms of the will of God, but I almost feel like is that really… When I think about doubt and uncertainty, when it comes to things like the will of God, I believe that God’s will for me, I believe where he’s taking me. I believe that the inheritance will come. I believe these truths, these promises, even though I’m uncertain of exactly what they will look like. Maybe this is your point at the very beginning, but I don’t really see that interfering with my faith.

Tim Elmore:

Yeah, so I say generally it doesn’t. It more interferes with how you go about your faith, how you walk out your faith. I like to point people to books. In this case, I’m going to point you to a book called, Oh, the Places You Will Go, by Dr. Seuss.

Isaac Dagneau:

Nice.

Tim Elmore:

In the book, he’s doing this just cheer you on, you got this, you’re going to go far. And then he backs off that and says, “But sometimes you won’t. Sometimes there’ll be hard times and struggles too.” And he encourages the people not to fall into the waiting room. That waiting game where you’re waiting for the phone to ring or waiting for the sun to shine. It’s all Seussical rhyme and iambic tetrameter kind of stuff. There’s so much wisdom inside of that. We do this, I would say, maybe more than most people as Christians. Kevin DeYoung wrote a great book on this called, Just Do Something. When we look at examples like Paul, Paul doesn’t sit down and say, “God, what would you have me to do? And I’m not going to move until you tell me.” Paul says, “I’m coming.” And he writes to the Romans, and he’s like, “I’ve been trying to come all the time. God keeps directing me, but this is what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to get this done.” When we say that, I don’t think we understand how bizarre a view of God we have in this. We have this bizarre view of God that says, “I believe that God is gracious, and merciful, and he loves me, but I also believe that he has a plan for my life, a secret plan. And he’s not going to give me any clues until I beg it out of him. And if I guess wrong, I’m in trouble.” Where’s the gracious, and merciful, loving God we have in that? He’s given us the commission and that’s it. There are going to be times when it’s more specifically he deals with this. But when I was a missionary and I’d go speak at churches, people come up to me all the time and be like, “I’d love to be doing what you’re doing. That’s so wonderful.” I got to the point where I just say, “Then go.”

Isaac Dagneau:

Go, yeah.

Tim Elmore:

They’d be like, “Well, I’ve got the kids.” “They have kids in Argentina. The kids will be fine.” “But we got the house.” “Sell your house. Any other questions? Just get it done, go do it.” The other thing I would say, sometimes we have this really high view of ourselves like, “If I only knew what God would have me to do. Like I would eagerly go, like if he…” Like who wouldn’t? If we knew exactly, like let’s say hypothetically, Isaac, let’s say that I was walking down the street and my neighbor’s bush was on fire, but not being consumed. And in that, God spoke to me, his exact words of what he’d have me to do. Of course, I’d I jumped all over it. Or if God told me, and there was this pagan land that I was to go to and tell them to repent because God was going to destroy them in 40 days if they didn’t, I’d hop on a boat and I’d sail right to Nineveh. We see ourselves as greater than these great prophets because chances are we wouldn’t. Because we have a general call. It gives us lots of freedom to decide how we carry out that thing. And how are we doing with that on a day to day basis?

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah, that’s so good and that’s just so important. We have to repent of that high view because we do have the high view of ourselves that elevates us more than these others. That’s a really good point, Tim. And I think-

Tim Elmore:

Do you think it puts the onus on God?

Isaac Dagneau:

In what sense?

Tim Elmore:

“And God, I’m here. I’m here ready to do your work”

Isaac Dagneau:

Oh yeah, yeah.

Tim Elmore:

I know you’ve got a plan, but-

Isaac Dagneau:

I’m waiting.

Tim Elmore:

We’re all waiting, waiting on you, God.

Isaac Dagneau:

One of the best pieces of advice I got when I was in Bible college was this old, old, old professor that came up, who since passed. And I was having lunch with him and I asked him, “Okay, what’s two pieces of advice you can tell a young pastor?” And he said, “Well, one is the awareness of God. Always know that God is there with you in whatever you’re doing.” That has really practical implications. Speeding on the freeway, all of a sudden Jesus is right there. And it’s like, “Okay, I shouldn’t be doing this.” There’s lots of implications. But the other one he said directly applies to what we’re just talking about. He said, “Live with a green light always. Don’t live at the red light.” Like just exactly what you’re just saying. “Don’t live at the red light, waiting for God to give you the green.” And like, you talked about Paul with Romans and same thing in Acts, when him and Silas and Timothy are trying to get different places and they’re trying to go to [inaudible 00:27:54] and the Holy Spirit stops them. So like, “Okay, that door’s closed. Let’s go up here. Oh, the Holy Spirit stops us. Can’t go there.” But they keep going. It’s not like they just wait there until the Lord tells them to do something. So to keep going, I think that’s so good.

Tim Elmore:

I had someone drop a really interesting challenge that I’ll throw out to anyone listening. Go back through the Bible and find every time in the New Testament that people are stalled out, praying to God saying, “We can’t go forward until we hear from you. Give us your will so that we know what to do next.”

Isaac Dagneau:

That’s good. And what will-

Tim Elmore:

It also cause you to read the whole New Testament.

Isaac Dagneau:

There you go. There you go, I like it. That’s awesome. Maybe as a last thing before we sign off here, Tim, is those listening right now that are experiencing doubt, are experiencing uncertainty, whether it’s these big issues of their faith, whether it’s smaller things, but they are barriers right now. And they’re suffering with these thoughts of doubt and uncertainty. How would you then as a pastor, as a missionary, as a friend, help them see the gospel in light of their doubt and their uncertainty? I’m thinking of things like… The gospel is the love of God given to us through Jesus and what he’s done. So obviously, the emphasis of God’s love, and he’s not incapable of loving someone who struggles with doubt and uncertainty, which it’s a breath of fresh air for many. So yeah, how do you see the gospel in light of this?

Tim Elmore:

Yeah, so I’ve already mentioned it a couple of times, but in Piper’s book, Help My Unbelief, the title of that book comes from a conversation that Jesus has with a man. The man comes to him and asks him to go back and heal someone in his household. In the conversation the man says like, “If you can,” and Jesus calls him out on it. He’s like, “What do you mean if I can? Just believe.” Of all the comments that people give to Jesus, short of Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, this is probably the most profound. And that he would say, “I believe. Help my unbelief.” I think that there’s so much beauty in this idea that, of course, my belief is just like everything else that I am, limited and incomplete. It is a growing thing. And that I struggle doesn’t mean God’s done with me. We homeschool. And you know what? My five year old can’t read. I’m not done with him. I’m teaching him. I know him. I know where he’s come from and I’m raising him up because I love him. God doesn’t expect. He’s not shocked that we have questions. He’s not shocked that we need to grow. He’s been about this for a very long time. We are not the first people to come along. We are not the first people he has raised up for his glory and for his name’s sake. It’s new to us because we’ve never done it before. He’s been doing it for a very long time. Trust him to be that father that he says he is. And the guide that he says he is. Trust that he’s going to be more patient with us than we are going to be with ourselves at times and it doesn’t lessen his love for us. But I would also say just be careful of that waiting room and needing an existential answer. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just change what you’re doing. Sometimes that can be a move. Sometimes it can just be finding new ways to get engaged or wrapping yourself up in a Christian friends group that is going to lead you in that direction. Find not only the opportunity to trust and to pray in that way, but find ways to physically move yourself in that direction, and contribute to your own sanctification in that way.

Isaac Dagneau:

Yeah. No, that’s so good. That’s a good place to end our conversation, get some practical tips. I love that, Tim. That’s so good. If you’re listening and you’re interested in more, I know Tim has just recently wrote an article on some of these same topics for Indoubt, and we’ll have that available on indoubt.ca as well. And also just to circle back to the beginning, I’d also encourage you to check out Tim’s podcast at In and Through Podcast. And it was inandthrough dot…

Tim Elmore:

Dot, I think it’s dot org.

Isaac Dagneau:

Org, dot org, that’s great. But anyways, Tim, just thank you so much. We appreciate that and we’ll hopefully have another conversation with you again.

Tim Elmore:

Awesome, man. Thanks for having me.

Erika:

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of indoubt, and thanks to Tim for taking the time to join us as a guest. It is so important for us to understand that doubt isn’t a bad thing. Having doubts does not make you a faithless Christian or someone who doesn’t trust God. It simply means that you need to do some digging to understand your faith more. If you’d like to hear more from Tim, you can check out his podcast In and Through, or find him on Twitter at the Gospel Coalition and other online platforms. We’ll have all of his channels linked on the episode page on our website. Thanks again for listening, We can’t wait for next week where we’ll have Daniel on with Jonathan Evans to talk about compassion and our prejudice towards the poor. We’ll see you then.

Thanks so much for listening. If you want to hear more, subscribe on iTunes or Spotify, or visit us online at indoubt.ca or indoubt.com. We’re also on social media, so make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.