Teresa Ortiz

One of the many things that come up when studying with a new believer is doubt. This is normal because everything society and science from a secular standpoint teaches the exact opposite of the word of God. 

Conversion is real, experiencing forgiveness of sin is an unexplainable joy – we know in our heart of hearts that  God is real, so we begin to study the Bible. However, we find that it is foreign, it is confusing, and it is challenging.

Our first thought is to run back to our old ways, yet the Holy Spirit will not let us go so easily.  Pretty soon, the peace that is promised is gone.

When God gives me the privilege to share the Gospel with another, I always make known the realities of becoming a Christian.  It is not easy, but worth every minute of it.  I explain that when the Light is revealed to us, we see that our “mistakes” or “bad choices” are actually sin. Something real and spiritual happens the moment we surrender our lives to Christ and we acquire a new enemy; Satan himself.

His job from the moment of our salvation is to do everything in his power to confuse us. Not that he creates situations, instead he uses the opportunities we place in front of him.

For example, if we are a student of science, our natural desire would be to use science to make sense of the Bible, this is a great quest. The problem however, is that we are not seeking out Science by the hand of incredible men and women of faith.  We run to what we are comfortable with and that is to use the resources of the secular and often times, atheistic points of view.  This does nothing more than confuse us, because the message seems to conflict.

Other times, we try to justify our sinful lifestyle by using the world’s standard instead of the biblical standard. This too causes grief, because we have to choose what we will follow. 

When we surrender our lives to Christ, we are saying we are no longer going to live according to our own standard, but live by God’s instead. But dying to the “old” us, is not so easy.

Becoming a Christian means much more than staking claim in a religion. It means we acknowledge we are a sinner in need of a Savior, it means acknowledging there is a heaven and a hell and without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we would be destined to hell. Even Jesus told his disciples to count the cost.

Despite all of this, doubt does not remain. We can have victory over our moments of frustration with our new found faith. But the only way it will happen is if we continually run to God and immerse ourselves in His word and surround ourselves with mature believers.  In this we begin to see the beauty of God’s plan and His character and pretty soon those old ways no longer pull at us. In Christ Jesus there is fullfillment and joy while on this earth. We are free to enjoy God’s creation with being hindered by the things that had us bound and miserable before we surrendered to Christ.

We can count on it, for it is promised to us in His word. The question is, are we willing to pursue God with the same gusto as we pursue other things in life.

So when in doubt, run to God, not away.

Blessings to you! T