And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? – Matthew 14:31
When I was in high school, I played on our football team. The week before we would go up against a particular team, a squad from our team would scrimmage us using plays that we expected the other team to use in our upcoming game. The idea was to know our enemy—know the things they were good at and the things they were not so good at. We wanted to prepare ourselves for the other team’s tricks and learn its weaknesses so we could win the game.
As Christians, it behooves us to know our enemy. I once heard someone say that the devil has many seeds in his storehouse—seeds that will destroy our souls if they are allowed to grow. Those seeds have names like hate, bitterness, murder, etc. It seems to me that the seed Satan uses the most with Christians is the seed of doubt. He plants it so subtly in our hearts that we might not even recognize what it is or where it came from.
Years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and began looking in the Bible for a promise on which I could stand. I read about Hezekiah, but immediately the devil said to me, “You’re no Hezekiah. You haven’t done the things he did, and you aren’t worthy of a healing like he was.” The devil likes to make us doubt that we are worthy of the promises in the Bible, and it is easy to believe that lie because none of us is worthy of anything from God; it is the Blood of Jesus that makes us worthy. Despite the enemy’s attacks, I held on in faith to the promises of God and He healed me of the cancer.
When the serpent spoke to Eve in the garden, he planted doubt in her heart with one simple question: “Hath God said?” There might be something in our lives that God has told us—something that we know perfectly well that God has said—but Satan may try to put a little doubt there anyway. The devil will use any avenue he can to trip us up, get us confused, and cause us to doubt what God has said. We need to be prepared for those tricks so we can withstand them.
Faith is the answer to the enemy’s seeds of doubt. How do we get faith? The Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Reading the Bible will build our faith and help protect us from the enemy’s attacks. Why does that work? Because the Bible is filled with victory! When we read about how God delivered Daniel, Ruth, Hezekiah, and many others, we say to ourselves, If God did it for them, He can do it for me! In addition, we have to know what the promises are before we can claim them, and we have to know what God’s requirements are before we can meet them. His Word supplies everything we need to receive victory.
If Satan can get just a little doubt into our hearts, he will take advantage of it and hurt us. Don’t fall for his trick! Let this poem be a reminder of the attitude needed to overcome:
Doubt sees the obstacles. Faith sees the way.
Doubt sees the darkest night. Faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step. Faith soars on high.
Doubt questions, Who believes? Faith answers, I.
—Anonymous