Even the Righteous Can Doubt

Pick any presidential candidate and any topic or issue, and I can tell you the candidate’s answer.

“Vote for me. I can fix this.”

No, they can’t fix it—and deep down we know that. Politicians—even the most well-meaning—do not do everything they say on the campaign trail. Again, we know that deep down, so in the end we vote for the candidate we think will least renege as what was promised.

Thankfully, we trust God because He does what He says and promises.

Um, you do trust Him with everything He says, right? And you trust Him with every part of your life, right?

I want to answer both questions in the affirmative, but I don’t want to be smug.

Why? In the opening chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we are introduced to a couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth. “Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” (Luke 1:6).

Kudos for Zechariah. He sounds like a good role model for anyone who follows Christ. But when an angel appeared to him and told him that, at his old age, he would be a father—the father of the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah—Zechariah was skeptical. OK, so maybe not an out-and-out skeptic— “Yeah, right. Who are you really? Did my cousin Murray put you up to this?”—but he was still unsure.

Catch what’s going on here. In Luke 1:18, Zechariah asked, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” But just a few verses earlier, he was described as a righteous and godly man. A righteous man. With doubts.

Throughout our Christian lives—as we walk closer and deeper with God—we will periodically have our trust in Him tested. I am confident that God’s Word can be trusted—as I’m sure Zechariah believed—but moments come when that confidence is tested.

God worked in spite of Zechariah’s doubt, and in the end, Zechariah responded with full confidence and trust (vv. 64-79). We can trust God from the get-go or God may have to do His work around us, but in the end we will see that—unlike politicians—God says what He means and He means what He says. He will do it.

God can be fully trusted.

This post supports the study “Redeemed From Crippling Doubt” in Bible Studies for Life.