Guilt and Doubt

Satan's most powerful tool is not getting godly people to do ungodly things, but getting godly people to distort godly things. For instance, guilt is good - when used the way God intended. It's the red flag in our heart telling us that something is wrong and we better get it fixed. It's God's built-in-warning-system. It tells us we're out of balance, taking on water, or slipping into something we shouldn't. While guilt is good, if we carry it once it's been forgiven and paid for by the precious blood of Jesus, it becomes faithlessness - our unwillingness to accept His grace. Satan loves guilt! Nothing works better on sensitive, conscientious, striving-to-be-perfect Christians than guilt. While, in one sense, we are always unworthy and always guilty, at some point we have to recognize that Jesus died and made us worthy and no longer guilty. That is an essential part of faith!

Doubt is the same way. It's a wonderful tool of discovery! It's a natural part of the whole seeking process. As we stand amazed at what God did, does, and is doing, we can't help but declare, "You've got to be kidding!" His love is so great, so uncompromising, so patient, and so sacrificial that we can't understand it, we're overwhelmed by it, and at times ask, "Is it for real?" The challenge of comprehending the spiritual world from bodies and minds that are physical, means that we will have doubts, but those doubts make us "hunger and thirst after righteousness" rather than become excuses to quit. When Satan gets a hold of doubts, like he did in the garden with Adam and Eve, he uses them to create a rationale for disobedience. That's when doubt is deadly.

A lot of folks are having a field day with the news about Mother Teresa's doubting faith. I find it ironic that the media people who have so little credibility and do little good are questioning the credibility of a person whose actions were the personification of good. My understanding of her doubts is that it was part of her seeking - her faith building. She certainly wasn't looking for a rationale to quit! Considering where she was working and the kinds of awful things she saw every day of her life, it's not any wonder that she might cry out like the prophet of old, "How long, O God, before you deliver us?" I certainly don't agree with every part of the believe system of her religious group, but I do believe in the preeminence of love, compassion, and mercy. These are the things God cares most about. Love covers sins - it sums up all the Law and the Prophets, and it's the single most valuable evidence that you know God, have God, and are saved by God.

I'd rather stand before God at Judgment having lived a life of loving others, but being doctrinally off target, than being doctrinally correct and in love with the theory of love. Just read I Corinthians 13:13 again and check out which of the big three are going to last. May there be no doubt about it.