The comfort of the Bible

Psalm 94: 19 (New Living Translation) "When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer."

For today's devotional, I wanted to share an excerpt from Peter Enns' book The Bible Tells Me So, which rubs a lot of elbows with the question of doubt. I offer it as an encouragement to keep wrestling with your doubts as we move on in our exploration of Genesis.

"An unsettled faith is a maturing faith. Christians often get the signal from others that if they doubt or struggle in some way with the Bible, their faith is weak. They are told that their goal should be to ease the stress somehow by praying more, going to church twice on Sunday (and Wednesday if need be), or generally just stop being so rebelliously stubborn and asking so many questions.

"But one thing we see in the Bible is how often people's trust in God was shaken - and not because they were weak, but because life happens. Whether we read books like Job and Ecclesiastes ... or the dozens of psalms that cry out to God for some reason or another, life does not move along smoothly.

"You get the feeling from the Bible that being unsettled is almost a normal part of the process. ... True struggling in faith is a stretching experience, and without it, you don't mature in your faith. You either remain an infant or get cocky. ... Feeling unsettled may be God telling us lovingly, but still in his typical attention-getting manner, it's time to grow."