Twice in the last week I’ve found myself giving this advice to people: “Doubt your doubts.” It comes from C. S. Lewis and I have found it helpful over the years to apply it with resolve.

Neither your strongest beliefs nor your shakiest doubts are infallible. Often, something we take as absolutely guaranteed turned out to be less certain than we thought. The same goes for our fears and doubts.

It’s easy to think of all the doubts that point toward bad news as rock-solid, and the reasons you have for hope to be just wishful thinking. But when you’re in that state of uncertainty, it’s best to just confess the one thing you can be sure about: “I don’t know.” Your doubts could turn out to be good ones, or your highest hopes could become reality. But in the moment, all you know is that you just don’t know.

So what do you do? You fall back on things that are perhaps less certain or less satisfying, but far more common in a world that’s maddeningly untidy when it comes to these things. You ask questions like:

• Do you have good reasons for hope?
• Do you have good reasons to doubt?
• Which set of reasons outweighs the other?
• What do people you trust have to say about this?
• If someone approached you with the questions you have, what would you say? (That always catches me when I apply the most pessimistic standards to myself but the most optimistic standards to others.)

Finally, let me point you to a blog that has some helpful pointers on the subject called Battling Doubt. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here are the highlights:

1. Concentrate on the historical fact of the cross.
2. Do not seek refuge or advice with those who would shame you for doubting as if they never did.
3. Pray. Or, more specifically, hurl yourself at God.
4. Re-focus your doubts toward your own failings and inability. Doubt yourself, in other words.
5. Read your Bible. More specifically, meditate on Scriptural promises related to your area of doubt.

P.S. I see no reason to think that doubt is a sin. The sin you have to guard against is unbelief. Doubt is built on an honest quest for the truth in spite of your lack of certainty. Unbelief is the settled position that something is untrue or untrustworthy. I’d be interested if anyone disagrees with me on this… I sort of doubt myself on this one. 🙂

Correction: The original version of the P.S. on this post said that I thought doubt was a sin. That’s not what I meant; it reads correctly now.