Queen Esther was faced with a dilemma. Haman had just sent out a decree “to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews” (Esther 3:13). Mordecai asked Queen Esther, his younger cousin, to plead with King Ahasuerus of Persia for the life of her people (4:8). But Esther replied to Mordecai: Everybody knows that anybody who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, will be put to death—unless the king holds out the golden scepter and lets her live.

You’d think he’d be quick to hold out the golden scepter for the most beautiful, special woman in the kingdom—whom he had personally selected! Yet, stop the presses on the Persian National Enquirer, Esther confided that the king had not called for her for 30 days!

So Esther had reason to doubt, a life and death reason! Who knows what he would do? Or in this case, what he wouldn’t do?

Mordecai convinces her to act: “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (verse 14, emphasis mine).

When in doubt: fast!

Esther asked all the Jews to fast with her for three days and three nights. Like Esther, King Jehoshaphat of Judah, when under attack from a multitude of nations so that Judah’s survival was in doubt, had the solution for when we just don’t know what to do. He “set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah . . . to ask help from the LORD . . . we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (2 Chronicles 20:3-4, 12).

Peter had to learn this same lesson when he boldly stepped out of the boat to meet Jesus who bid him to come. He was more unsinkable than Molly Brown until he looked down at the boisterous wind-whipped waves which took his eyes off Jesus! “Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:28-31). Jesus framed the situation as faith vs. doubt. Fixated on doubts, we falter and sink! As He reached out for Peter, so He rescues us. With our eyes focused on Jesus Christ living in us, even a daunting impossibility becomes a path—probably narrow and difficult (Matthew 7:14)—to faith that is waiting to be developed.

Doubts and all, Esther mustered up the courage: “I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16). Probably taking a long pause at the entrance of the throne room and saying a heartfelt silent prayer, Esther approached the king. Heads could roll, even the prettiest in the kingdom!

King Ahasuerus not only sceptered Esther, but he offered her anything she wanted up to half his kingdom! An amazing offer, but did any of us doubt that he would do just that? A Persian king’s word was so good that a written decree could not be altered.

Jesus Christ has a better throne and offer!

Thanks to Jesus’ death at Passover, we are always welcome to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need [and time of doubt]” (Hebrews 4:16).

Outdoing the king’s offer, Jesus promised, “If you have faith and do not doubt [His message for the sinking Peter] . . . if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (Matthew 21:21-22).

We can absolutely count on that—the promise of the Son of God—more than Esther could count on the Persian king. If we would trust a human king’s offer, why not the King of king’s promises “who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2)?

What stumps me is coming up with a good reason why God should cast Pike’s Peak into the Pacific Ocean! Of course, “mountain” refers to a challenging trial. Whatever it is, God wants us to already hear the splash!

Jesus promises four other times in the Gospels—and the apostle John two times—so seven times, the number of completion/perfection, that if we ask anything in His name, He will do it. (Treat yourself to a homework study of these passages: John 14:13-14; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24; 1 John 3:22; 5:14-15.)

If we ask for something that will “bring glory to the Father in the Son,” “bear fruit” that remains, result in abiding in Christ and His words in us and full joy for all—as Jesus said He looks for—and if we do as John asks and “keep His commandments and do those things pleasing in His sight” and ask “according to His will,” why wouldn’t Jesus grant our request! Of course, He reserves the right to answer when and how He deems best for us and for all others concerned. That should give us no-doubt faith!

It’s even more amazing than that: God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20)! “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

“Double-minded man, unstable in all his ways”

Doubt is rightly dubbed one of the four enemies of faith (along with human reasoning, fear and worry).

“If any of you lacks wisdom [any takers?], let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).

Deuteronomy 28:66 promises any disobedient person or nation will “hang in doubt.” What a graphic phrase for picturing the futility of being double-minded—swinging by the neck like Haman did on his own gallows! Double-minded boils down to minding God or minding Satan. Satan was the first doubter, convincing one-third of the angels to doubt that God would be able to stop their invasion. He conned the first humans into doubting God’s simple instructions to them, and all of us since have been corrupted.

God undoubtedly will have some amazing tasks for us just ahead, and some training and tests planned to prepare us for those challenges.

It’s easy to forget that Abraham and Sarah, the father and mother of the faithful, struggled with doubts for 25 years before God granted the promised son Isaac. How did they do it? “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws” (Genesis 26:5). “By faith Sarah . . . judged Him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11).

My trial of faith, testing and doubting

Finding a wife from the Lord seemed forever to me but lasted only 15 years past college. Along the way I watched many promising relationships fall apart at the key moment, and the hard part was seeing God’s hand in the breakups. “Fine, but why don’t you just send me the right one!” I would cry in exasperation. The biggest drain was hearing what many well-intentioned brethren would say about growing-older bachelors and theorizing about what was wrong with us.

The last Sabbath of my third tithe year came April 15, 1989. How appropriate that day for that taxing 15-year problem! I remember actually saying to myself that morning that this just might be the long-awaited day! That Sabbath my roommate needed me to take him to services in Glendora, California rather than my usual Pasadena Auditorium.

At the door, there was Mary! And it was as if I heard a voice: Here she is! God had prepared her and her two kids and me for just that master timing day! Funny that this life-changing answered prayer actually caused me a Passover trial: we already had separate plans for the Passover and Night to Be Much Observed and had to be apart!

And here we are today

The world grows scarier daily. I’m still moving but my body keeps coming up with another check engine light.

The answer to doubt is to daily ask God for the faith of Jesus Christ. If a situation arises causing doubt, the first step to take is to seek the Lord, fast and focus our eyes on Christ with single-minded determination. My daily prayer is 2 Thessalonians 1:11 (New Living Translation): “May [God] give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.”

Faith is shown when we humble ourselves, surrendering all to God and expecting that God will fulfill every one of His promises when and how it is best for all. We must be childlike—responsive and teachable. Childlike faith is a relaxed trust with no doubts!

The apostle Thomas became the poster name for doubters even though he wasn’t there eight days earlier when the resurrected Jesus Christ appeared to the other disciples, showed them his hands and feet, and “they still did not believe for joy” (Luke 24:33-41). A good question for us is what Jesus asked the disciples in verse 38: “Why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

Heidi Braun, United News editor, put it so well, “I’ve learned in my own journey . . . that doubt is not equivalent to outright unbelief, but rather that it is often a tool that helps me strengthen my faith by revealing what areas of my faith I need to work on!”

Remember, as Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). What does God have in store for us? Perhaps we’re here for such a time as this! No doubt about it!