Blinded by Doubt
When we experience difficult trials, it’s easy to lose perspective as we become disoriented by our circumstances and blinded by our doubts and fears.
"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubt is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind" (James 1:6).
Stuart and I live in Wisconsin, where it gets very cold in the winter. In fact, snow and ice are a big part of our lives during the long winter months. Sometimes we get a blizzard. It is almost impossible to drive in these conditions. You can be inching along, and all of a sudden you run into what is called a “whiteout.” You literally go blind for a moment and become disoriented as the snow swirls around the windshield.
We can experience whiteouts in our faith life too; the blizzards of life can catch us unaware. We could call these experiences whiteouts or “doubt out.” You can see perfectly clear one moment, and the next moment you are disoriented and blinded by the storm. Doubt does that to you. Doubt is faith in distress, and it is very hard to pray when you are doubting God. The Bible says, “Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). Elijah was experiencing a mammoth “doubt out.” He couldn’t see God anymore, but worse, he could see Jezebel very clearly indeed. And Jezebel looked so much bigger than God.
It’s funny what things people are afraid of, isn’t it? Here Elijah who has taken on an entire nation, running away from a woman! But then, doubt and exhaustion do strange things to you. It’s easy to lose perspective.
There are two ways of looking at a problem. You can look at your problem through God, or you can look at God through your problem. If God is in front of the problem, the problem appears to be insignificant. But if God is behind the problem, then the problem dominates everything.
When we lived in the English countryside, I was alone with the children for a long period of time while Stuart was away, and was overrun with field mice. I wasn’t a bit bothered about going out on the streets and contacting wild teens, but I panicked about the mice! They bothered me especially when I was under a lot of stress. It really is funny what people are fearful about. But whether the problem is as big as Jezebel or as small as a mouse, you need to look at it through God, who is bigger than everything!