Having your doubts

Jock Stein April 17, 2026 0 0

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Matthew 28: 16-20 (NIV-UK)

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’

‘Some doubted’ (verse 17). What kind of a shrug is that? Today, if you claim to have met Jesus, you might get an ‘Aye, right’. But to get this laconic remark in a Gospel, in the middle of the climax to the book, is to my mind a mark of great authenticity.

Doubts come for quite different reasons: lack of evidence, the way you were taught ‘science’ at school, your temperament, being let down in the past, your assumptions, the kind of company you keep . . . it’s a long list in our sceptical society. How we deal with them is the key thing:

Do we explore doubts or suppress them?

Do we discuss them with others we trust?

Do we offer them to God with a plea for ‘mair licht’? (more light)

Some people say it’s healthy to doubt. I prefer to say it’s healthier to doubt myself than to doubt God.

Some Prayer Thoughts:

Make a habit of taking positive God-statements (God is wise, God is good etc) into your mind.

Pray for people you know who are troubled by doubt.

Remember the idea of God saying, “Even when you don’t believe in me, I believe in you!”

Pray for those who (in the words of C.S. Lewis) “make righteousness readable”.