Doubts

I started a new book yesterday, Not God Enough by JD Greear. In this book he shared two things that completely blew me away and I think are perfect thoughts to head into the weekend contemplating.

1. There are three septillion stars. That looks like this: 3000000000000000000000000000000. He reminds the reader that in Isaiah 40:26 God calls each of them by name. What I realized is that not only does God know all three septillion names, He knows where He placed each one and what each one looks like. If you put me in the middle of my high school reunion, I don't know that I could name every person I spent about four years with. There are times I look at my kids and call them the wrong name and I only have two.

2. This statement, while preceeding the one about the stars, made me feel significantly better about the moments, hours, and days I have my doubts. He shares that even John the Baptist had doubts about whether or not Jesus was the promised Messiah and this was after seeing the Spirit of God descend upon Him like a dove and hearing the voice of God declare, "This is my beloved Son". After seeing a manifestation of the third person of the Trinity while standing in front of the second and hearing the voice of the first....p. 26

So here are the questions we can ponder this weekend:

If God has the ability to not only create that many stars, but also name, place, and locate said stars at any given time, why on earth do we ever doubt He is capable of taking care of us and take matters into our own hands? What areas do we take matters into our own hands? How has that ever worked out to our advantage?

If John the Baptist had his moments of doubt, how normal does it make the rest of us, not having had the benefit of witnessing what he saw or leaping while still inside our mother's upon hearing the voice of Mary? In what ways has God revealed Himself to us that we haven't thought about for a while that we need to intentionally remember? Why is it important to remember those things more often? What would be the benefit of telling those things to someone else considering Romans 10:17 that says faith comes by hearing?

I hope you all have a blessed weekend. Sorry if I made your head hurt. (sort of) I'm going to get some advil myself right now.