Spiritual Fitness – The Mask of Doubt
After taking the first step forward, the next footstep towards change becomes even more difficult due to the inconspicuous nature of doubt.
To change from your old ways of doing things means to change how you think. Ironically, this is precisely where doubt attaches itself – within your mental abilities to process – in terms of how you perceive who you are and what your significance really means.
Even before the heel of your foot strikes the ground on your second step, the odds are highly against you from moving forward without opposition. It is more likely that you should anticipate doubt to thunderously raise its voice against your earnest desire to change for the better.
From one perspective, you might be filled with inspired optimism from God, being able to imagine the best of the best for yourself. No more pain. No more sorrow. No more poverty. And to boot, perhaps, you’ll finally conquer your worst fears of never being able to overcome your biggest obstacles.
On the other hand, all you have to do is to look into the mirror. Change doesn’t seem to happen fast enough. By its nature, doubt will inevitably rush to your thoughts, reminding you of your repeated blunders, as well as your inability to refrain from addictions, such as overeating, over-drinking, overdosing, overspending, over-procrastinating, and for that matter, over anything else.
As for me, I kept reverting back to my old ways of trying to change. Being stripped to almost nothing still wasn’t enough because I continually relied on the few instincts that once gave me tremendous success. Practically speaking, I had placed my faith on the strongest parts of my willful mind to try to overcome chronic pain and obesity. The end result of my efforts fell miserably short of my expectations.
Meanwhile, in terms of how I perceived doubt, well, quite frankly, I thought very little about its existence. Doubt seemed to be the least of my problems in comparison to the constant barrage of pain I had experienced. Fooled by the loudness of pain, I kept trying to overcome what I thought was the fiery test of my life, which seemed obvious to me – painful suffering.
Nevertheless, I learned that pain wasn’t really the enemy I needed to defeat. In fact, the insistent communicator of pain actually pointed me to seek the truth when nothing else was working for me. And the deeper I went by faith, the more I discovered the living reality of God.
Slowly the scales were being removed from the eyes of my soul. The painful instruments of trials were deliberately clearing away the blind spots about walking in change. Fiery pain wasn’t preventing me from moving forward, but instead, it was doubt.
What’s really on trial? It’s not your brokenness. On the contrary, it’s your belief system. Your most seemingly insurmountable trials aren’t the reasons that prevent progressive changes from happening. Rather, it’s the deceptiveness of doubt that stops you from seeing how to effectively live out the process of your redeemed life.
Keep me on your favorites about spiritual fitness. You can begin this exciting journey of transformation regardless if you’re living with chronic pain or if you’re up against horrendous obstacles.
