FAITH WITHOUT DOUBT? I DOUBT IT

It seems that quite often, as pastor, I have a believer come to me bothered, not so much by his doubts themselves, but by the fact that he doubts. That really disturbs some. "How can I really believe, how can I have faith when I doubt?" The answer, I believe, is simply this: Faith is not the absence of doubt but a response to doubt. In fact, I think it impossible to have faith without doubt. In the end, faith is a decision to put one's trust in something. None can chose to put faith in something without there being some kind of questioning. There has to be something he is choosing against, or there would be no choice. Though not doubt in all its connotations, this is doubt. Without delving into a discussion of the varied nature of doubt, indulge me this simple contrast between doubt as wrong and doubt that isn't wrong: Doubt that is wrong is a willful refusing to put one's confidence in God. Doubt that isn't wrong is an uncertainty. This uncertainty is an honest questioning that arises from trying to reconcile what one knows and hears about God (or from God) with the apparent realities of his life. We see this difference in the Christmas story in the response of Zachariah and Mary when each respectively was told they were to have a child. Both basically responded to Gabriel with a question, "How is this to be?" Zachariah was thinking of his and his wife's advanced age. Mary was thinking of the fact that she had not had relations with a male. If their response was basically the same, why was Zachariah rebuked with dumbness and Mary, receiving no rebuke, was given a further explanation? Why? Because Zachariah refused to believe, to put confidence in the message from God via the angel. Mary believed that it would happen but struggled to reconcile her prophesied conception with the reality of her being a virgin. Zachariah's doubt was a refusal to put confidence in God's Word. Mary's "doubt" was a questioning of how to reconcile God's Word with the apparent facts of her life. Zachariah doubted that it would take place. Mary believed it would take place by only questioned how. This isn't parsing semantic differences. It is revealing an attitude of heart. It shows that faith is a heart response to doubt. Mary chose to believe although she questioned (doubted) how she would conceive. If you believe you can have faith without doubt, then you did so by doubting the explanation of what I wrote above. Thus, your faith in faith without doubt was a response to your doubt of my thoughts. Can one have faith without doubt? I doubt it.