Prayer Tip: Why Do the Innocent Suffer?
Daily Scripture
Genesis 1:27-28 (NRSV)
God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Prayer Tip
by Ashly Cooley, Executive Assistant to Locations & Care at Resurrection
My daughter still doesn’t know how to swim. It’s been a long process, as she was terrified of water. We had to retake the kiddie class twice because for several lessons she just stood on the edge refusing to get in. Now she loves the water, but still needs a flotation device and cannot swim on her own. I told her we were going to take more lessons and her response was, “Why? I can just stay in my floatie.”
God loves us so much he wants us to keep growing. We could live our lives with floaties on, having to stay in the shallow end, or we can learn to swim with certainty. Doubt can keep us in our comfort zones. But God can love us through our doubt. Just like the patient swim coach, coax us but not leave us when we are even afraid to get our feet wet. Eventually when we step out in faith, we may wonder why we hadn’t taken that leap before. It’s never too late to swim with confidence in God.
This week, take some time to pray the below prayer from Gary E. Roberts as you continually ask for God’s presence as you address doubt:
Dear Lord, help me to understand that both belief and doubt are verbs, and we can have intellectual doubts and intellectual unbelief, but still retain our faith. True belief and faith require us to be a hearer and doer. To truly doubt and disbelieve, we must have both thought and action. Lord, do not let the enemy steal our victory. Praise the Lord and help me to stay in faith by rebutting and replacing the negative thoughts. Lord, I thank you for Mark 9:24, which reinforced that heart-based belief triumphs over intellectual unbelief in spite of our thoughts. Lord, I remain in faith when I move forward in doubt and fear like the disciples. True doubt is taking action on our thoughts. Thank you, Jesus, for breaking through my doors of doubt and unbelief. Jesus was tempted in all ways as we were, with unbelief and doubt. Praise the Lord that you are active and present in our lives, even when we cannot see you, even when we were sinners and rejected you, and even when we didn’t believe him. Lord, when we are tempted with condemnation, help us to rest in your grace. Lord, help me to be patient and understand that faith requires a season to grow. Lord, help us to cast out our impatience. *
* From Roberts G.E. (2015) “Prayers: Overcoming Doubts.” In: Developing Christian Servant Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978113…
