6 Truths When Suffering Causes Us to Doubt

We often question God in our pain. Suffering causes us to doubt, chiseling away at the tidy theology we held and the way we expected God to act.

And when hard times cause us to question our faith, we can start to scold ourselves. I shouldn’t be thinking this, or I should have a stronger faith, we tell ourselves.

But when suffering causes us to doubt and raises hard questions, we have only to look in the Bible for others who doubted. One of those was whose suffering caused him to doubt is John the Baptist.

“And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” (Luke 7:19)

It’s almost incredulous to read that John the Baptist doubted. I mean, Thomas the apostle is infamous for his doubting, but John the Baptizer? John was the fearless, forerunner of Christ who boldly stood against the religious authorities calling for repentance and proclaiming the Messiah.

And yet, here he is asking Jesus, “Are you the One? Is there another we should look for?” Let’s look at six truths this passage teaches us about the doubts that come in suffering.

6 truths when suffering causes us to doubt

1. True believers can have moments of doubt.

John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth and appointed a prophet by God. His own mother had declared Jesus the Messiah while Mary was still pregnant, so surely John had been raised knowing Jesus was the Christ.

John continuously pointed people to Jesus as the Messiah. Early in Jesus’ ministry, John pointed to Jesus and declared he was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

John had baptized Jesus. He’d seen the Holy Spirit descend on Christ and heard the Father’s voice from heaven confirm this was the Son of God. How much more proof did John need?

And yet, John questioned Jesus. John didn’t live in doubt, but he did have this moment of doubt.

I’m so grateful scripture includes this tender scene because it shows us that a moment of doubt doesn’t invalidate real faith.

2. Hard circumstances create hard questions.

John the Baptist only began to doubt after he was arrested and thrown in prison. For more than a year, John languished in a black, windowless, stifling prison cell at the bottom of Herod Antipas’ desert fortress. He faced the daily prospect of execution as day after day no rescue came.

It’s often when our circumstances go wrong—the diagnosis comes or the job is terminated or there’s another month with no pregnancy—that doubts can creep in. Is God in control?, we ask. And if so, why isn’t he rescuing us? Hard circumstances can raise hard questions about who God is and how he acts.

But there’s something else that can stir up doubt.

3. Unmet expectations trigger doubts.

Listen, I’m the best at setting up expectations of just how my life should look. Especially when I’m trying my best to live the way God wants or I’ve stepped way out in faith to do follow him. Doesn’t he see everything I’m doing?

But when we don’t get the life we ordered, when life implodes in loss or suffering, oh, how the doubts come.

Disappointment is the difference between the life we wanted and the one we’re actually living.

John’s steps of faithful boldness resulted in prison. Down in that bleak dungeon, he heard reports of Jesus’ healing throughout Israel. This wasn’t the kind of Messiah that so many Jews had expected. Wasn’t Messiah going to overthrow the Romans and restore the kingdom to Israel? What was this teaching on a hillside about being meek and persecuted and reviled? Was this the Christ or would there be another?

Suffering unearths the unknowing expectations we’ve placed on God. But God is not bound to conform to our agenda. He asks us to surrender to his.

God never called us to a plan; he calls us to himself.

4. It’s okay to ask hard questions.

Jesus never rebuked John the Baptist for his question. Jesus rebuked plenty of people for their attitudes and motives, but he didn’t scold John for his question. Jesus didn’t get impatient or angry and he wasn’t surprised or offended. Instead, Jesus went on to affirm John as the greatest prophet ever born of women.

John had asked a sincere question with a sincere motive. It wasn’t the heckling of a skeptic or a trap set by a scoffer. What assurance for us that God won’t immediately smite us for having sincere doubts in our suffering. Maybe because God knows suffering sifts the idols and false beliefs gospel out of us.

Doubts in suffering won’t weaken our faith if we let God refine it with his truth.

5. We can take our doubt to Jesus.

John the Baptist didn’t take his doubt to the scribes or Pharisees. He didn’t ask his own friends or disciples. He didn’t even go to fellow believers. He took his doubt straight to Jesus.

We can take our doubts and questions to Jesus as well. The Bible calls it lament. Lament is an invitation to take our tough questions and hard emotions in suffering to God. They are not only safe with God; they are safest with God.

6. Jesus answers the one who brings sincere doubt to him.

When Jesus answered John, he did so very personally:

“When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them ‘Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.’” (Luke 7:20-23)

Do you see Jesus’ tenderness? He could have said, “Buck up, John. You heard it firsthand and you should know this!” He could have dismissed John’s question with impatience at his flagging faith. But in perfect love, Jesus gave John just what he needed.

John the prophet understood prophecy. And so, as the two inquiring disciples watched, Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah before their very eyes—healing the sick, curing infirmities, restoring sight, delivering from demons. Now go and tell John what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard.

An answer tailored to meet the needs of the one who asked.

Often, God meets our doubts through the truth of his Word.
Other times, he reveals himself without directly answering our questions, much like he answered Job.
And sometimes, we have to trust even when we don’t understand as wait to know fully in eternity. (1 Cor. 13:12)

When suffering causes us to doubt, we don’t have to let it unravel our faith. Like John, we can take our questions to Jesus knowing that in perfect love, he welcomes them.