Doubting God: The Doubts in your Box

Matthew 28

Connect:

• Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.

Prayer:

Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.

Review:

This series, Doubting God, looks at the many questions that we all have about God and His ways. This week we opened with looking at the life of the apostle Thomas and his doubts about the risen Christ…

The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…

o What did you learn about God?

o What did you learn about people?

o What did you learn about yourself?

o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?

Reflection:

Personal Experience:

• Have you ever had one of those “What on earth am I doing?” moments where you know you are supposed to trust the person leading, but in the moment, things just look REALLY scary? Maybe it was taking a new job with a large jump in responsibilities, or maybe entering one of those “High risk, high reward” situations. Whatever happened, ou had some serious doubts about how this was going to work out! Talk about it; how did you process through doubt in that situation?

  Group Discussion:

• Read Matthew 28: 1-6 and v 16-20

  • Jesus was standing right there in front of them, about to ascend to heaven in front of them, and there were still some who doubted Him in that moment! Let’s talk about that:

    • We all have questions, we hate injustice, and we carry pain. Any one of those can get us trapped in doubt. What gives doubt it’s power over us?

    • Why did Jesus entrust the Great Commission (to go into all the world and make disciples), to people who, in that moment, doubted?

    • Read John 11:6-8 and 12-16; John 20:24,25. John 14:4-7. Based on these verses, try to develop a profile of Thomas— what mattered to him, how did he think about the world, what personality do you think he had, do you think you would have been friends? Talk about that: Who was Thomas?

• Read John 20:26-28

  • Thomas continued to gather with the disciples even though he did not let himself believe Jesus was alive. Why would he do that, and what does that tell us about the nature of doubt?

  • Jesus came to Thomas, He did not leave Thomas in his doubts. Why would Jesus do that, and what does that tell us about the way God sees us… even when we are stuck in our own doubts?

  • Read Luke 18:15-17. What does it mean to “receive the Kingdom of God like a little child”?

  • Read Luke 18:31-34. Jesus was simply describing objective events in the future; why does Scripture say that the “meaning was hidden from them”?

Application: 

There is a saying, “In order strong faith to arise, honest doubt must come first.” Be honest about your doubts and questions, and let God answer those first and foremost with a revelation of Himself to you.

Prayer:

Spend some time thanking God that He is willing and able to continue His transforming work even through our times of doubt. Offer these to Him and recommit yourselves to seeking hard after Him!

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