Jump Start # 1626

Luke 13:10-11 “And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all.”

This week we have been looking at the feelings, attitudes and emotions that often plague God’s children. These thoughts are not healthy nor what God wants from us. We often recognize them, study them and know that they shouldn’t control us but they do. Hatred, fear, guilt, worry and finally doubt—each of these are different, yet each of these can feed the other. The heart that struggles with these will have difficulties having confidence and assurance in the Lord.

Today, we talk about doubt. Doubt is a wide subject.

First, one may doubt that God loves or forgives a person. Sometimes the experiences in our lives give cause for doubt. It seems that prayers are not answered positively, so we doubt. We just can’t seem to rise above trouble and turmoil, so doubts take over. We feel that we ought to be happier than we are, but we are not. We doubt God. We doubt God loves us. If He did, we think, our lives would be better. We doubt God can or will forgive us. I’ve met some who have thought that even God could not forgive what they did.

Second, we can doubt the promises of God. We know what the Bible says about Heaven and who will be there, but deep inside, we just doubt that we’ll be one of those people. We want to. We’d love to. But we doubt. Nothing on this side of life has seemed to work out very well, so why will it on the other side.

Third, we can doubt the Scriptures. God’s word is full of promises, help and assurance. We know the stories, but some how, it just isn’t the same for us. It won’t happen that way for us. The “Eeyore” complex of doom and gloom fills our hearts and our days.

Fourth, we can’t forgive ourselves. We know what the promises of God teaches, but we refuse to let go of the pain and the reminders of wrong choices. We continually beat ourselves up. We refuse to rejoice with the saints, because we feel inferior and do not deserve God’s goodness. So we live in a cloud. This has caused some to refuse to participate publicly in worship. They don’t feel worthy.

These doubts are self induced. There is nothing from God, nor His word that would lead one to these conclusions. They have decided this on their own. Doubt, lacking confidence and an esteem that is shot full of holes tend to all blend together. The doubter looks sad. He would like to soar with the saints, but he’s not good enough. His doubts keeps him on the ground.

Our verse today is one of the best “anti-doubt” passages in the N.T. Nothing is said about doubt, but it is full of hope, optimism and faith, which is the opposite of doubt. Here, on a Saturday in the synagogue was this bent over woman. Jesus sees her. Jesus heals her. There is no indication from the text that she knew Jesus was going to be there. He happened to be there and she happened to be there. That is what makes this story incredible.

She has been bent over for 18 years. Imagine that. The time it takes to graduate elementary and high school, she has been bent over. She could not straighten up. She couldn’t lift things off a shelf. She couldn’t look up and see a bird flying by. A bent over person doesn’t move very fast. Bent over means limited and unclean in terms of going to the temple. I expect she prayed. I expect she prayed over and over about this. I expect she never quit praying about this. And now, 18 years later, we find her, not on the roadside, cursing God who doesn’t care, but in the synagogue to worship. She had not given up. Doubt had not conquered her. She body was bent, but not her faith and hope in the Lord. I think most of us, after just a few months of this stuff, would have given up on the Lord. He doesn’t like us, would be our thought. We must have done something wrong, would have been our conclusions. We prayed and we remain bent. Why go to church, people will stare and it won’t do us any good. Came bent, left bent.

Not this woman. She was there. Had she allowed doubts to overcome, she would have stayed home and missed Jesus. She believed. Her actions demonstrate that. After 18 years and still in the place of worship, can’t you and I do better?

God has not promised you health and success. That’s the TV preachers, who don’t know what they are talking about. God has promised you grace, love and a home with Him. You may leave this world with a limp, or a bad back or a bad heart or the loss of eye sight or poor, or lonely, but God will not let you down. Without much faith, those conditions build doubt. With faith, we find ourselves, bent over as we are, in God’s house worshipping. We go when it’s hard. We go when the weather isn’t good. We go when we feel like staying home. We go because we believe. That’s the one thing that kicks doubt out of your heart, faith.

She was in the synagogue. Did she know that Satan had caused her illness? Did she know that Jesus was going to change her? Probably not. She knew that she still loved the Lord. The Lord had been good to her, bent back and all. She knew that God was deserving of her praise, affection and devotion. She wasn’t a “fair weather” Christian, who only worshipped when she felt good. Her faith wasn’t tied in to her back. Her back was bad, but her faith was great.

God loves you. God forgives you when you come to Him on His terms. God has a home for you. Do you believe? Do you trust Him? This woman did. The measure of God’s love is not the wellness of your body. When it comes to your forgiving yourself, trust God. If He has released your sins, then you need to. You are not the worst, but even if you were, God forgives. You forgive. Let it go. Don’t go back and revisit over and over what happened. Move on. Walk in the light as He is in the light.

Saturday in the synagogue and here was this bent over woman. She had not given up. If she did, many would understand. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. God was greater than her back. Someday that bent back would be something of the past. She didn’t know it would happen on that Saturday.

Doubts—don’t feed them. Don’t landscape them. Don’t dwell on them. Build your faith. Get to the church house on Sunday—even when you don’t feel like it. Even when folks might stare at you. Bent over. Moving slowly. Limited. But a faith that trusted and believed in God—that’s what we see. Jesus saw her. He saw something about her. He called her forward and He healed her.

It was her faith, not bent back that Jesus saw. There was no doubting with this one!

Roger