But how much do we really believe what the Word of God says? Do we truly take God as His Word? Or do we cast some shadow of doubts upon the veracity of God’s inspired Word? Are we faithful to His Word?

It is one thing to know, understand and even to memorise the precious Word of God. But it is a totally different matter if we do not actually simply believe in our heart what God plainly says in His Word. Do you ever, even in a slight moment, doubt the truth of God’s Word though you may read it daily and meditate upon it? Do carefully search our hearts if we do not fully, truthfully and faithfully believe all that God has spoken and written. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb 11:6).

It is not uncommon for some believers today to doubt if God had actually in time past spoken every word and written every jot and tittle in the Holy Scriptures and preserved them until today and forever. But God Himself says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever” (Ps 12:6-7).

May we be always mindful and alert that this is the very thing that Satan wants us to do – to have doubts concerning the truth of God’s Word. Did not the serpent tempt our first parents by casting doubts on the truth that God had said to them in the beginning? “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen 3:1). But the devil has not stopped working hard with his deceiving tactics. Since he tricked Adam and Eve to fall into sin by doubting and disobeying God at His Word, till today the wicked one is still actively tempting people including believers to cast doubts on the faithfulness of God and His truth. He is all out to lead people to believe in his own lies and to doubt God and His true Word (Jn 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”)

Some doubt God’s Word because they think that it is only written by men. This is one way how the devil deceives men. But each time when we are tempted to believe in the devil’s lies, let us resort to God’s truth to fight against the devil (that was what the Lord Himself did when He was tempted of the devil in the wilderness).

The Bible vividly tells us in 2 Peter 1:20-21 – “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” No, those holy saints of old did not even volunteer to speak and write God’s Word (unlike teenage boys today who proudly even dare to preach God’s Word for their own fame and glory). Those prophets of God were divinely appointed of God. It was God Himself who inspired each and every heart to receive divine understanding in their spirit as they wrote every single word of Holy Scriptures (Job 32:8 “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”) Every word penned by the authors of each book of the Holy Bible was God-breathed. The Apostle Paul, who was especially chosen of God and inspired to pen a great portion of the New Testament, wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 – “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” God in His wisdom might have used ordinary men to write His words in the Holy Scriptures but they are indeed words of God spoken by His own breath, and they have the power therefore to effectually work in those who believe in them. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12).

When a believer starts to doubt God’s truth he is in grave danger as he is opening the door for Satan to slowly and eventually come into his spiritual life “to steal, to kill, and to destroy.” (Jn 10:10 – “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”) His faithfulness in God’s truth will gradually be destroyed. James tells us that one who doubts is wavering in his faith. “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (Jas 1:6-8). Have you been double minded by allowing the philosophies of the world, men and the devil to cause you to go astray from God’s truth? The Apostle Paul warns in Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

When a child of God allows doubt and unbelief to start creeping into his mind he will eventually entertain destructive thoughts and diabolical attitudes towards God’s Word. We should guard against this for children of God should not be tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive (Eph 4:14).

If we want to gain many benefits from God’s Word we need not just to hear, know and understand. We need to believe. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4:2, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” When we faithfully and obediently take God at His Word, we will then see the manifestation of God’s power in our life. Recall once “when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matt 21:20-22).

Let those with much knowledge of God’s Word not be of doubtful mind and faithless, but believing. – Pastor