This blog is based on a message by Pastor Todd Cosenza.
Everybody wrestles with doubt at times. I do too. Even the disciples struggled with unbelief while Jesus was right there with them, teaching and doing miracles. So this is not about pointing fingers or making anyone feel condemned. It is about finding freedom and moving forward with the Lord.
Hebrews 3 gives us a direct warning and a hopeful way to respond. It looks back at the Israelites, whom God delivered from Egypt and called into the Promised Land. What should have been a journey into freedom became 40 years in the wilderness. They heard God’s promise, but they did not trust him enough to enter it. They gave in to doubt.
Doubt Is Not a Neutral Place to Stay
Hebrews 3:12 warns believers to guard against an unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. That is the hard truth we need to face: unbelief is not simply a pause in our progress. When we settle into it, it is sin because we are turning our attention away from the Lord.
Picture a ball on a steep hill. It does not stay halfway up on its own. It either keeps moving upward or rolls back down. In much the same way, we cannot treat persistent disbelief as something harmless that we can leave alone.
That does not mean every person who has a doubt has stopped loving Jesus. You may deeply want to follow him and still be struggling to believe him in a particular area. But Hebrews calls us to take that struggle seriously. God wants us looking to him, trusting his word, and keeping in step with his Spirit.
And here is the good news: we can bring our unbelief to him. We do not have to hide it, dress it up, or carry it in shame. We can say, “Lord, I am struggling to trust you here. Forgive me. Help me turn my eyes back to you.” He is willing to forgive, cleanse, and help us begin again.
Encouragement Helps Keep Hearts Soft
Hebrews 3:13 tells us to encourage one another daily so that sin’s deceitfulness does not harden our hearts. Notice that the answer is not something we are meant to work out alone. God’s people need one another.
My prayer is that Hope Church would be a place of mighty encouragement, not only when someone speaks from the front, but throughout the whole community. Encouragement can be a prayer, a phone call, a text, a letter, or a timely word spoken to a friend. We can ask, “Lord, what can I say that will help my brother or sister keep going?”
One word of encouragement may help someone who feels as though they are going under remember that they can keep their head above water and trust God for the next step. When we build an atmosphere of encouragement together, doubt has a much harder time taking root.
Hold Firmly to What God Has Said
Hebrews 3:14-15 urges us to hold firmly to our original conviction and not harden our hearts when we hear God’s voice. Hearing is a moment of decision. It is possible to hear something from the Lord, think, “That’s good,” and never actually choose to believe it.
The Israelites had heard a remarkable promise. God was bringing them out of slavery and into a land he had prepared for them, a place where they and the generations after them could thrive. Yet when they saw the enemies ahead, they decided the way forward was too difficult. They even wanted to go back to Egypt.
Doubt often starts small. We let one fearful thought remain, then give it room to grow. Eventually it can make worship, gratitude, trust, and receiving from God feel more difficult. Hebrews 3:16-19 shows the terrible result for that generation: they did not enter because of unbelief.
Hard circumstances do not have to harden our hearts. We can be honest with God about what hurts, what frightens us, and what we do not understand, while still saying, “Jesus, I am holding on to you. I will keep trusting you.”
Put Unbelief to Death Before Planting Faith
What do we do when we find disbelief growing in us? We do not merely try to manage it. We deal with it.
The Israelites’ unbelief had a grave consequence: that generation died in the wilderness, and their children entered the land instead. The point is simple: where doubt and disbelief are growing, something needs to die. We are not living under that Old Testament covenant, and the answer to our doubt is not that we must physically die like they did. But we do need to put to death the source of that doubt. That is the instruction in Colossians 3 which says we must “put to death what belongs to our earthly nature.” If doubt is raising its head, that means that something in our sinful, earthly nature is rising up and needs to be put to death. Jesus won the victory when he took our earthly nature to the cross; now we must walk in that victory in daily life.
Sometimes the root is a thought we accepted after a painful experience. Perhaps you prayed about something and felt no answer came. Perhaps someone hurt you, you lost a job, or a failure left you afraid to hope again. Bring that place into the light. Tell the Lord what happened and what you came to believe because of it. Ask him to help you reject the lie and entrust that hurt to him.
When we try to walk in faith before doubt and disbelief are dealt with, we may end up with a mixture of doubt and faith together. Think of preparing ground for grass seed. If weeds are filling the soil, you deal with the weeds before planting healthy grass because you don’t want a mixture of good and bad. In the same way, do not try to cover over unbelief with a few hopeful words while leaving its roots untouched. Confess it, turn from it, and make room for faith.
Mix What You Hear With Faith
The thought continues in Hebrews 4:1-2. The promise of entering God’s rest still stands. That is wonderful news. Even when we have missed the mark, God has not stopped calling us to trust him.
Hebrews also explains why the good news the Israelites heard did not benefit them: they did not mix it with faith. God had spoken. They had heard. But hearing alone was not enough.
It is a little like oatmeal. Dry oats may be good food, but you need to add water or milk before you can enjoy them. God’s word is not something to collect and leave sitting on a shelf. We need to mix what he says with faith. That applies when we hear a message, read Scripture, or receive an encouraging word that draws us back to what God has said.
We can spend years hearing good teaching without allowing it to change how we live. So how do we mix what God is saying with faith? Keep it simple:
- Say it. Put the truth into your own words. What God has said to you, say it out loud to yourself.
- Pray it. Tell the Lord you believe him and in what he has said to you, even if you cannot yet see every step. Ask him to show you how to move forward.
- Remember it. Choose a Scripture connected to what God is saying to you and return to it throughout the week. Memorize it.
- Obey it. Put hands and feet to your faith. Find a small, practical way to walk it out.
It does not have to be polished. Take any step you can take. Say it, pray it, remember it, and obey it. Then encourage someone else with what God is doing as you learn to trust him.
So when doubt appears, do not ignore it and do not be afraid to bring it to Jesus. Recognize it, deal honestly with its roots, receive his forgiveness, and hold firmly to what he has said. We have been given faith to use, and we can help one another keep using it.
Questions for Reflection
- Is there an area of your life where you have been treating doubt as harmless rather than bringing it to the Lord?
- Has a painful experience shaped what you now believe about God or his word? What would it look like to entrust that experience to him?
- What Scripture or word of encouragement do you need to mix with faith this week?
- Who could you encourage today with a call, a message, a prayer, or a practical act of care?
