Type of Doubt – Part 2

Last time we dealt with doubt we looked at factual doubt and this time we are going to look at Emotional Doubt.

Sometimes people have a state of mind or attitude toward God that creates the doubt.  It can come from depression or anxiety that can stem from psychological or medic issues.  It could come from a view of God that is skewed which could be things like God does not answer prayers or it could be things like God being blamed for things like children being abused.  It could also be based off of feelings.  Habermas put it this way, it is an attack on the feelings that has someone believing that God and religion are fantasy which he used from C.S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters.

The are many reasons for the emotional doubters to doubt but in anyway one of the ways to deal with this is through looking at Philippians 4:6-9 which says:  

 ⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,  will guard  your hearts and your minds  in Christ  Jesus.   ⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. ⁹ The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the  God of peace will be with you.

I remember from class that he shared these points from this passage as a way to begin to deal with this emotional doubt:

1) believing prayer – pray believing that God will answer.

2) thanksgiving – have a heart that is Thankful to God for that which you have.

3) edifying thinking – having thoughts that focus on the good and positive things in life.

4) practice – keep doing this over and over.

He also discussed some research done by some others on volitional doubt which suggested getting to the truth by:

1. Locate your misbeliefs.

2. Remove them.

3. Replace misbeliefs with the truth

These two ways of dealing with the doubt of this type are not quick fixes but they are things that need to continued to be practiced.  Habermas wrote this:  One biblical means of confronting emotional doubt is to pray with thanksgiving (even for one’s emotions), replacing the anxious thoughts with edifying ones. Continual meditation on these concepts (practice) is also commanded (Phil. 4:6-9). A biblical approach to depression includes praising God (Ps. 42:11; 43:5). A psychological model for healing anxiety, depression and other problems, also making use of similar biblical principles, recommends locating, removing and replacing our misbeliefs which we tell ourselves.  And as we have been careful to mention throughout, this is not to say that other methods, such as the use of medicine, are not also needed in appropriate cases. But at each of these points, Scripture notes that God is the Source behind the healing, not our own self efforts or even the practicing of certain steps.

Any thoughts?