Prickly Doubts
October 5, 2009

“The reason many of us do not ardently believe in the gospel is that we have never given it a rigorous testing, thrown our hard questions at it, faced it with our most prickly doubts.” – Eugene Peterson

Good little Christians don’t doubt.

Good little Christians don’t question.

Good little Christians don’t test.

If that is what good little Christians do, I can tell you a few other things about good little Christians:

• They can’t answer tough questions put to them by an unbelieving world.
• They can’t stand firm in the face of devastating adversity.
• They can’t preach the gospel with unfettered passion.

Testing, questions, and doubt are an important and normal part of the Christian life. They push us to build spiritual character, challenge us to learn spiritual truth, and lead us to ponder spiritual wisdom.

Sometimes people ask me how I am able to respond so readily to questions about the Christian faith. Part of the answer is this: I have doubted just about every aspect of the Christian faith, and have searched for the truth until I found it: in Jesus Christ.

• Do you feel guilty when you doubt or question your faith? If so, why?
  
• How do you respond when doubts or questions arise? What do you do? How do you address them?
  
• Do you think that there ever comes a time in a person’s Christian life when they are beyond doubts and questions? Why or why not?