Often, when we are confused and bewildered and don’t seem to have any answers to big questions (‘if God is so loving and powerful, why has this happened?’), the temptation is to give up. We conclude that God must either be not so loving or not so powerful and we stop believing what God says about Himself and come to our own conclusions. Jesus talked about this a little when He told His disciples the parable of the sower. In that parable, he talked about sowing seed into different kinds of soil and how much growth there was. Then He said, ‘When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. he seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.’ Matt 13:19-23)
Jesus said if we don’t understand something, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown. We don’t let the seed stay there to grow in due time; instead, we just give up on God. Or when trouble or persecution comes, if we don’t have roots in God, we’re uprooted and give up. Sometimes the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke out what God wants to do in our lives. We worry instead of trusting, or we trust in the wrong things, thinking that money will make us happy. All these reactions stop us from believing God and pressing on with Him.
The disciples had doubts and questions about whether it really was Jesus, alive from the dead, but that didn’t alter the reality of the resurrection! What we need to do with our doubts and questions is bring them to God. Instead of running away from Him because we don’t understand and we’re scared, we need to walk by faith and not by sight.
