The Battle Between Faith and Doubt

Daniel 6:16

Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.

Darius’ faith was very much like the faith of most believers. The law had been signed that nobody could pray to any God for thirty days, but Daniel understood that God’s law was higher than man’s. Despite the law, Daniel prayed as he had always prayed, and was found by his enemies. The law stated that Daniel was to be put to death by being thrown into a den of lions. When Darius realized he had been deceived by these men, he was heartbroken because he was a good friend to Daniel. However, because it was the law, and even Darius could not change the sentencing.

Before Daniel was thrown into the den of lions, Darius said, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. WOW, what a statement of faith. However, look at the next few actions of Darius. The next thing we see is Darius spent the night fasting for God to deliver Daniel from the lions. The next morning, Darius went to the mouth of the den of lions and cried out to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? Hold on! Where is the man who had the faith that God was able to deliver Daniel? Where was this man that told Daniel that his God would deliver him? Though Darius had faith, he also had doubt, but he acted on his faith, and that is what caused his prayer to be answered.

We can all identify with Darius’ battle with faith and doubt. We all seem to have faith that God can do something, but it also seems our doubt is greater than our faith. In the battle between faith and doubt, we all desire to let faith win out in our prayer lives and actions. Let me share three things you should do when you are battling faith and doubt.

First, realize that faith is present whenever you have doubt. There can be no doubt if faith is not present. The thing that makes faith faith is that doubt is present and it takes acting on faith to make doubt appear. You are no different from many other believers who had faith that God could do the miraculous by faith, but they also doubted. When Peter was in prison, the church prayed by faith for God to deliver him, but when he was delivered, their doubt was exposed. The three Hebrew children declared that God could deliver them from the fiery furnace, but their doubt was revealed when they said, But if not. Doubt never appears before faith, but it always appears and wants you to believe it instead of the God of your faith.

Second, don't let doubt stop you from praying. Just because you have doubt does not mean that you should not pray. Doubt should never keep you from praying by faith. I would hate to think that doubt kept me from getting my prayers answered because it kept me from praying.

Third, act on the faith you have. Though doubt was present, God honored the faith of Darius to pray. My friend, the best way to control doubt is to act on faith despite doubt’s presence. Doubt will always be present when there is faith, but if you want God to do the miraculous through your prayers and life, you must ignore doubt’s voice and act on faith. God is looking to do great things through the one who trusts Him enough to act on faith that He will come through if they will just step out.