That None Should Perish

August 18, 2026

Jesus didn’t call us to lead a comfortable life, He called us to go and serve others. Luke 9:23: Jesus tells His disciples that anyone who wants to follow Him must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him.

As new Christians, we start off fresh, clean, excited and ready to go and do His will and spread the Gospel. Everything is going well, no problems.

I have been serving Him for many decades and I would not trade my Faith in Him for anything, but there are times when I did and still do doubt. And doubt is okay as long as it doesn’t take root and grow.

Let me explain about doubt and how it can be either healthy or deadly to Christians. How can you tell the difference between faith or doubt? Actually it can be more difficult than you think. You can have the faith of a mustard seed and do mighty works but still doubt that it made a difference as sometimes you may not see the results right away.

Doubt, on it’s own is okay but when it persists and becomes a habit of doubting, not just yourself and/or faith in Jesus, it can quickly turn into a trap. Satan loves to make you doubt what you can do through Jesus. It loves to eat away at your confidence as a christian, as a believer, as a follower, and also yourself. That is one it’s favorite tricks. And that is exactly what it is, a TRICK to bring you down to the point that you are not sure of anything.

Another trick that it likes to bring up is that when you doubt you are sinning, and we all know that is not true. But, remember, Jesus sat with John the Baptist and Thomas when they doubted and they were reassured that it is okay to doubt.

But there are also Christians who were on fire for the Lord, but they were hurt by someone, maybe the church, home or family, or wherever. It is so important to keep checking your heart, making sure that there is no hurt/doubt hiding there. Believe me, it is good at hiding and you may not even realize, or even recognize it. It may pop up from a comment and not recognize it until later on. And the blazing flame that you once had in your heart has grown dim.

DON’T LET THAT HOOK IN! Doubt is the root, and bitterness, anger, not trusting in Jesus, and loss of faith are just a few of the sprouts that can cause a believer to stumble.

Think about it. Have you ever met a person who is so bitter, stiff, and angry that they are not able to let go of an old hurt? Of course we have and what a wonderful transformation that takes place when they meet Jesus! And just how did they get to that point? Jesus came to them and met them in their doubt and He leads us there so that we can heal. A place we can turn to when we stumble, that I like to call The Valley of Healing.

Please check in tomorrow.