Key scripture – “This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.” But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (Numbers 13:27-33).

Did you know that doubting cripples you spiritually?

Most of the time we’re blind to our own doubts. It’s not as easy to see doubt in our own lives as in the lives of others—which is one reason God gives us the stories of the children of Israel.

On the edge of the wilderness, poised to enter the Promised Land, God’s people were torn between faith and doubt. Doubt is the absence of faith. It is a lack of confidence or assurance that God will keep His promises. Doubt whispers to your soul, “Will God really keep His promises? What if He fails to keep them, then I will be destroyed?”

Doubt is not an honest craving for answers. The disciple Thomas, who’s unfairly dubbed “doubting Thomas,” had doubtful questions, but his heart was willing to believe. And God will go a long way to reveal Himself to a person who sincerely wants answers (see John 11:16, 14:5, 20:24–29).

In contrast, doubt is a mindset, a persistent choice to live with uncertainty. Doubt is dangerous, destructive, and detrimental to any kind of relationship with God.

Doubt has many disguises. It doesn’t always present itself as pure, obvious doubt; it operates undercover. You have to pull back the disguise to see that the real problem is doubt. Consider these common disguises of doubt:

Fear – Doubters battle deep-seated fears. “What’s coming next in my life? What is going to happen to me? What if God doesn’t protect me? Will I be okay?” That anxiety is rooted in doubt.

Frustration and anger – Doubters often feel frustrated and angry. They don’t like how God is handling their problems. “I am upset with God because He won’t solve this problem on my agenda in my time. I can’t believe He has not done anything yet. What is He waiting for?” They are full of frustration. Their anger reveals nagging doubts.

Withdrawal – Doubters feel tempted to pull back from others or put up a wall. They pull back spiritually too, unwilling to draw close to God. They start saying things like, “God must hate me because He has not answered my prayer. What is the point in praying, He doesn’t hear me.” At the core of this withdrawal is a growing attitude of doubt.

Bitterness – Over time doubters can grow bitter and unforgiving because they doubt the goodness of God. They fume, “I don’t believe God is good or that He loves me, because He has not healed this hurt in me, and He should have done something about this by now.” They take that responsibility on themselves and keep their hearts stirred up about it, because they don’t really believe that God can fully heal the wounds of the sins done to them or take care of their problems.

So why does doubt come so easily? It’s contagious. Doubt is easier to catch than the common cold. When surrounded by doubters, doubting comes easily.

In the Israelite camp, the faith-filled words of the two spies were drowned out by the weak-faith words of the ten spies. “They brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out” (Numbers 13:32). That highly contagious bug of doubt spread through the camp like an infectious disease.

Doubting also comes easily because it’s passive. Faith requires action; doubting does not. The Israelites would have had to take action to overcome their doubts—squelch the rumors, choose faith, and march into war. Whereas faith requires a choice, doubting is the passive default that requires nothing from you. If you don’t consciously, actively choose faith, you’ll naturally slip into doubt.

Doubting also satisfies our tendency toward self-protection. Nobody likes to be wrong or disappointed. On the border of the Promised Land, the Israelites fretted, “What if we go into the land, trust God for great victories, and lose? We’ll look dumb. And dead. We’ll end up in the cemetery outside Jericho. It’s easier not to trust God and to lower our expectations so we won’t be disappointed.”

But despite the guise of self-protection, those who doubt are disappointed on a much deeper, more consequential levels, and doubters are easier to find than friends of faith. How many real, genuine friends of faith do you have—people who speak the Word of God into your life and fire you up spiritually? Those are critical, cherished, life-giving relationships.

Doubt is the absence of faith, not an honest craving for answers. On any issues of uncertainty in your life, are you doubting God, or do you genuinely, sincerely want His answer?

Consider your closest friends, those who influence your thinking. Which ones are naturally doubters, subtly influencing you to doubt? Which are genuine friends of faith who fire you up spiritually?

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, because doubt is so contagious, I need to be wise about my friends, the people who influence my thinking. Thank You for my friends of genuine faith and how we sharpen each other spiritually. God, help me to see my doubts clearly, and like Thomas, help me to sincerely ask You for Your answers. Doubt is an attitude, a spiritually crippling choice, so I choose faith over doubt. I choose to believe that You will always keep Your promises, because You’re constant, You do not lie nor do You change Your mind like we do. Your Word tells us that, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19). I believe You are The Lord God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and earth, and I will live my life with complete faith and trust in You and Your promises. In the Name of Jesus, my Trusted and Faithful Rock and Redeemer, I pray, Amen.