It is not unusual for Christians to struggle with doubt.

Sometimes we have a wrong understanding of assurance when we think of assurance as a zero-sum game: "you either have it or you do not." There can be degrees of assurance. There is full assurance and there is assurance that can wax and wane. 

I am reminded of the father who had a son who had a demon that the disciples could not cast out. The man pled with Jesus, “If you can do anything, please help.” Jesus looked at the man and responded, “All things are possible to those who believe.” And the man said, “Help my unbelief!” That is the cry of a Christian who is struggling with assurance. 

Assurance is a gift of God that comes with a saving faith in Christ Jesus. It may not necessarily be full assurance. Some people get that immediately upon trusting in Christ. The Lord seals it to their hearts through the Holy Spirit and they never struggle with doubts. This is not always the case and there are faithful Christians who have struggled with assurance their whole lives. 

To trust Christ is to take Him at His word.

There is an element of assurance that resides in saving faith and it needs to be cultivated by us. "Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure...” (1 Peter 1:10) No Christian should ever be satisfied to live with low levels of assurance and we must ask God to help. Believe God over yourself. 

Well, it's not unusual at all for Christians to struggle with doubt and sometimes I think we have a wrong understanding of assurance and we think assurance is like a zero sum game. Either you have it or you don't. And yet there can be degrees of assurance and the old writers would talk about full assurance versus this assurance that is normative, that sometimes can wax and wane to greater or lesser degrees. I'm reminded of that father whose son had that demon that the disciples couldn't cast out and he pled with Jesus, you know, Lord if you can do anything, please help. And Jesus looked at him and said, if I can do anything, he said, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

And the man responded, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And I think that's the cry of a Christian when he is struggling with assurance. Lord, I do believe, I wanna believe more. So assurance is a gift of God. It comes with faith in Christ Jesus that saves.

Now not full assurance necessarily. Some people get that immediately. Once they trust Christ, they have this full confidence. God just seals it to their heart in a powerful way by His Spirit and that's great. They go through the rest of their lives and they don't ever struggle deeply with doubts.

But that's not always the case and there are faithful Christians who have struggled with assurance, some throughout their whole lives. William Cooper, who wrote Rock of Ages, he struggled for years and really all his life with lack of assurance or going back and forth about doubt and confidence that God really had saved him. But to trust Christ is to take him at his word. And so there is an element, there is an element, not full assurance, but there is an element of assurance that resides in saving faith. But that element of assurance that is a gift of God needs to be cultivated by us.

It is our responsibility, it is our duty. Peter says to make your calling and election sure. Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And so no Christian should ever be satisfied to live with low levels of assurance and we should make it our duty even as we make it our prayer asking God to help us to come to full assurance and basically what the challenge is for us is to believe God rather than ourselves because The reason we doubt is we know ourselves to some degree and we think about ourselves and we think about what the things that God has told us about himself and we think how in the world could a God like that ever accept a person like me and I know my failures and I know my insensities and I know that sin is mixed with all of my thoughts and even my faith and even my greatest desires. And so those truths become preeminent in our mind and we begin to trust our conclusions regarding those truths rather than God.

And the Word of God says God justifies the ungodly. And so it really is a... It's an insidious thing to get caught in this vortex of doubt that just takes you down and robs you from assurance. And the way to deal with that is to come back to Christ and look to Christ and just put all your eggs in that basket and say, if Christ is not enough, if my faith in this one whom the Lord sent into the world to save even the chief of sinners like me, if that's not enough then there's no hope for me. But whether or not that's true I'm going to trust Christ regardless.

And we begin to trust God and what he says about his grace that is greater than our sin more than we trust ourselves because we know that we're not trustworthy. That's the reason that we condemn ourselves. It's the reason that we get caught in these circles of ongoing doubt and wondering whether or not God could ever accept us. We need to just simply take God at His word, and the way we do that is by continuing to feed on His word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of Christ.

Sometimes when Christians are struggling with doubt, they wonder whether they should come to the Lord's table. Well, the Lord's Table is not for sinless people. The Lord's Table is not for those who have full assurance. The Lord's Table is for those who come as beggars knowing that their only hope in this life and the life to come is the one who gives them bread, the one who saves them by his life and death and resurrection. And so little faith is welcome at the Lord's Table.

And I would encourage any Christian, even those who are struggling with doubt, yes, come to the Lord's Table, not because you think yourself worthy, not because you think yourself righteous, but because you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is your only hope, and that you are determined by God's grace to continue to seek Him, to follow Him, to entrust yourself to Him to the best of your ability as long and as deeply as you can. A little faith in the true Christ will get you to heaven.