Pete Enns on the Dark Night of the Soul

There is a benefit of doubt. Doubt is a gift of God to move us from trusting ourselves to trusting him.

Doubt forces us to examine what we believe about God—and this can be unsettling. What we thought was our “faith in God” sometimes winds up being little more than faith in ourselves—our own ability to grasp God, to possess him our way, to have him figured out.

Doubt is God’s way of tearing down the private fantasy we have constructed about him—where what we think about God is without further need of reflection, no longer open to growth. Doubt does not mean that God is “dying” for us. Doubt signals that we are beginning to die to ourselves, and that can be very painful—dying usually is.

In the words of some theologians, doubt helps tear down the idols we have constructed in making God into our own image.