Doubts, ducks and puppets

Doubts!!

Wow! I've had  a few - doubts about all sorts of things - my ability to achieve - about the health and well being of my family - about being able to financially secure the present and future.

Doubts about decisions involving employment, retirement, relocating and generally keeping our heads above water.

Life can be difficult - it reminds me of a duck swimming in a pond - all serene and calm on the top but underneath all kicking and struggling trying to keep afloat!

Doubts do nothing but add to the stress already thrown at us through everyday living and coping with life.

I even had huge doubts about my salvation and whether there is really a God!

If God was alive why why why and so on....Well it took me a while to comes to terms with this pretty gigantic question.

Doubting my salvation took me on highs and lows - when bad things happened in my life I immediately doubted - and asked the inevitable question Why?

It was then that I drew much comfort, peace, confidence and reassurance from these thoughts.

God does not will 'bad' things to happen in life. He gave us a beautiful and in some senses a magical gift in issuing the gift of life in the first place.

In that gift of life He gives us a radical freedom  - we are free people - not puppets pulled on strings here and there at the whim of some Master puppeteer.

He is certainly not like Zeus - storming in at the last moment to strike down the worlds evil.

Our God is so grieved when we suffer bad things - we need to live in this world with all it's evil, sickness and badness. Therefore we are prone to have these 'bad' things in our lives.

God never wishes harm on any of His children - not for me - not for you. He walks beside us and loves us unconditionally.

He mourns with us - He groans with us - He weeps with us. He also laughs with us - comforts us and encourages us.

God's grieving is experienced most vividly in the mocking, torture, obscene hurt and unimaginable suffering of Jesus for all of humanity.

God grace is all-powerful and on going - He provides His amazing grace to cope with anything life can throw at us.

His grace can overpower the attacks of the evil one. His grace can give us confidence to move on with whatever is troubling us.

Are you doubting??

Are you really relying on Jesus' sacrifice for your sin?

Do you really believe that Jesus did that for you? - That YOUR sin was laid on His shoulders - that He carried YOUR sin as well as that heavy cross up to Calvary that terrible day?

Do you really believe in a living and personal Lord? A friend that is with you always - that hears what you say and knows your deepest thoughts?

Do your really believe that Jesus rose again from the dead and lives with His Father and has prepared a home for you?

Are you trusting God? - Really trusting Him?  Or are you suffering from a fear of the Lord - a fear that you have gone beyond what God can forgive?

You may be suffering from doubts and anxiety stemming from your recollection of past sins - if you are then be assured every person remembers their sins - they are ever before us.

You may be asking the question "When Jesus comes again will he remember my sins?"

The awesome part is that God doesn't remember them. He looks at us and sees Jesus - the penalty paid - How miraculous is that??  Hebrew 8: 12 says "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

A huge sense of sins and present evil in our lives or around us may throw us into a state of doubt!

This doubt will tell us that you are unworthy, that you are no longer counted with those who have given their lives to Him.

There is no sin that is too big for God - Nothing - so your sins run deep! God's love and grace runs deeper.

Confess your sin, trust Him with your life - Give Him what he wants and yearns for - your love, your trust, your everything.

You are much too loved to be thrown away by God - he created you and loves you with a love beyond our comprehension.

Stop doubting - come back to Christ - give Him your all - you are redeemed by Jesus sacrifice you are His forever if you trust in this surety.

There is no place for doubt, fear, anxiety or stress - Jesus loves you - Heaven claims you - Hell can't hold you.