Neo to Morpheus

via Doubt

The mind bending alternate universe of The Matrix has always intrigued me.  Great movies like these sometimes challenge us to question everything we believe.  Is the keyboard I’m typing on real, or just an illusion?  Morpheus says to Neo, “I’m trying to free your mind, Neo.  But I can only show you the door.  You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

Life for people of faith is exactly like this.  Doubt is a part of our existence, and Jesus knew this.  This knowledge is what originated the final part of the plan, whereby God’s Holy Spirit would indwell those who have stepped over the line of FAITH into Christ.  It’s as though Jesus says to every new believer, “I’m trying to free your mind.  But I can only show you the door.  You’re the one that has to walk through it.”  When God’s Spirit leads us, we follow.  When God’s Spirit inspires us, we write or speak.  When God’s Spirit motivates us, we act in ways that benefit others and bring glory to God.  That’s what it means to walk in the Spirit.  We live out our existence in this world, believing that there is another unseen world more real than the one we inhabit.

Paul said, “For we walk by faith, not by sight-”  2 Corinthians 5:7

However, consider a few other verses which shed light on our doubt.

Proverbs 28:26
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.

Psalms 25:4
Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths.

James 1:6
But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Jesus was constantly asking those 12 men who followed him most closely, “Why did you doubt?”  Yet, remarkable as it may seem, Jesus fully anticipated that not only they, but we too would live a life filled with doubt.  So Jesus said to them, and to us, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1

There are days when I feel more like the man who watched his son, writhing on the ground, foaming at the mouth, at the mercy of a demon attacking the boy. The man just wants his boy to be free and sane again.  Follow this conversation… Mark 9:14-29

Jesus: “How long has this been happening to him?”
Dad: “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

Jesus: “IF … You can?  All things are possible to him who believes.”
Dad: “I DO … believe!! Help my unbelief!”

Many times in my past, in my present, and I expect in my future, I have or will look to heaven and cry out… “help my unbelief!”  Why?  Because I can’t see the Matrix that is God’s perfect will.   Because not only can I not see the Matrix, I can’t sometimes make sense even out of what I do see.  It causes me to doubt.  Not in a vacillating way trying to decide if I still believe it all.  But in a much deeper way than mere words can describe.  I’m like this dad… I just want help.

The Holy Spirit often speaks to me in moments like these with these words of wisdom…

Isaiah 64:4
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

Paul quoted this exact passage when he wrote to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 2:9-12):

but just as it is written,
            “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
            AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,
            ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.

Seeing is not believing.  Believing is seeing.  Do not doubt.  Do not be afraid.  Open the door to God’s Holy Spirit.

Jesus says:  I got this.