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One morning, my 10-year-old (while listening to our pastor preaching) said: “Doubt is like a flat tyre.” That statement resonated with me so much because a few weeks prior, I had experienced having a flat tyre.

I had just finished from work and had a few things to sort out. Walking to the car park I was sorely disappointed to discover that I had a flat tyre. Despite all the great pictures I had conjured up of the things I would get done, and despite the good plans in my heart of things to accomplish, I could go nowhere with a flat tyre.

If I ignored the flat tyre and attempted to drive the car in that state, I would have not only damaged the car but also endangered myself and other road users. This is what doubt does: it leaves you going nowhere. Doubt endangers you AND everyone in your vicinity because it leaves you unproductive. Doubt leaves you on the fence and no one has accomplished much by sitting on the fence.

Like a virus, it starts small in your mind—seeming logical and harmless—nipping at the Word you have believed and received with the singular purpose of challenging the word of God in you. If it’s not stopped, it spreads and consumes you in ways unimaginable.

James 1: 6b – 8 puts it this way: “…for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind.  For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].”

Doubt leaves you in a place where you are not able to accomplish anything because with doubt comes double mindedness. Double mindedness is not changing your mind, nor temporary hesitation over a decision.  Double mindedness is knowing in your spirit what God has said and promised and at the same time listening to your mind tell you it cannot be done (key word there is you listening to your mind). This causes instability and instability leads to nowhere.

Like a flat tyre would need some air to get it back up, you need the air, the strength, the assurance which the word of God brings to push out doubt and build faith!