Can I Still Have Joy in Seasons of Doubt?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Seasons of doubt may afflict our minds and shake our hearts, but they need not take our joy. Beneath the waves of doubt, joy’s deep waters can still remain calm.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back on this Monday, on the final day of July.
0:09.7	Last time on Thursday, we looked at God's joy and how His joy becomes our joy by the
0:16.2	Holy Spirit, a really key episode, EPJ 1962.
0:20.4	This week we continue on the joy theme, but we add another theme to it, the theme of doubt.
0:26.2	In fact, can we struggle with doubt and experience joy in God?
0:31.4	That's today, and next time we look at how to fight off the inner skeptic when we have
0:36.0	doubts about what we read about in the Bible.
0:38.7	That's on Thursday.
0:40.5	So today, can we struggle with doubt and delight in God at the same time?
0:45.0	That's Steve's question.
0:46.3	He lives in Nashville.
0:47.3	Hello Pastor John, my question for you is about how much joy I can hope to experience
0:51.0	in the Christian life as someone who struggles seasonally with doubt.
0:56.1	Sometimes I struggle with doubts about whether God exists or whether God is good based on
1:00.8	all the evil that I see in the news or I doubt whether God has a plan and purpose for
1:05.8	my life.
1:07.5	These doubts come and go.
1:09.1	They're seasonal.
1:10.5	None of them extinguish the smoldering flags that is my faith.
1:14.9	The doubts do not stay long and they do not overwhelm me.
1:18.2	So my question for you is this, can I ever hope to have deepening joy in God in seasons
1:23.9	when I also struggle with doubts like these or is joy in God simply impossible when doubts
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Desiring God, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Desiring God and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.