An enemy of faith is doubt; an enemy of love is self. Interestingly, an enemy of hope is self-doubt.
In self-doubt there is no longer any serious doubt of God. If anything, God is too real. He is far more immense than our puny little selves can cope with. Sometimes we would like to turn Him off, like the television set, but we cannot. Instead we are wholly alive to God; He is more present to us than we are to ourselves. It is not God’s reality we doubt, but our own. We look at the life of Jesus and it petrifies us. We doubt very much we can follow Him or obey Him or in any way please Him, let alone glorify Him and be like Him.
This is the struggle of doubt, and it is the fundamental struggle in the book of Job. Between the lines of every verse we hear Job asking, “With my life in such a terrible mess, is it possible to believe that even now I might be pleasing to God?” This same overwhelming self-doubt is finally and gloriously resolved by the very God whose holiness so overwhelms us. For so simple is His gospel that it asks nothing of us but this: having believed in His Son, we take hold of the hope that, however messed up our lives may be, we are in fact more pleasing to the Father than we can possibly comprehend.
Paul tells us we can rejoice in our sufferings because as we persevere, we eventually reach hope – a hope that does not disappoint. “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:2-5)
The enemy condemns, shames, criticizes, and uses circumstances to make us believe we are unworthy, incapable, and without hope. Without the Father, Son, and Spirit, the devil’s accusations hold truth… but Jesus has accomplished what none of us could. His righteousness is now our righteousness; His love is now our love; and His relationship with the Father is His gift to all who put their faith in Him. If He tells us to do something, we can do it… no doubt!
Through all Paul’s sufferings, perseverance, and molding of character, he reached the mature place where his hope was totally in Christ… not in his own efforts or possessions or skills. Writing from prison with no trace of self-doubt, he tells the Philippian Christians that through Jesus, all things are possible. What a great message of hope!
“I can do all things through Christ who give me strength.” Philippians 4:13
“My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.” (hymn by Edward Mote)
Quote from The Gospel According to Job, by Mike Mason, ©1994 Crossway Books, p 128