Doubt | His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich

Need Comfort?

October 7, 2024 Leave a comment

Body language experts are on the news a lot these days. Because it’s an election season, they’re asked to interpret the subtle, nonverbal cues that give insight into a political candidate’s feelings.

One particular observation got my attention recently, because I had never heard anyone put a name to certain gestures a speaker makes, like clutching hands together, putting hands to the face, or massaging an arm. Body language experts call these “comfort gestures.”

Such actions serve to soothe the speaker and indicate the person is feeling anxious, stressed, or uncertain. One expert says that everyone has these “self-comforting movements,” which we all engage in many times during our day.

Although we may not be aware of how often we feel the need to comfort ourselves, the Bible is full of verses that address our universal need for comfort. I immediately thought of several, which made me curious, so I did an internet search and discovered over 100 verses that either mention comfort directly or describe how God provides comfort to us. Bible verses that speak of how God comforts us.

Here’s one of my favorites: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

This verse tells me that Jesus Christ himself will comfort our hearts, and He does so on the basis of His love for us, a love that caused him to give “his life for us, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

Now that’s comforting!

Categories: Anxiety, Believe, Comfort, Devotionals, Doubt, Faith, Fear, Hope, Trust, Worry Tags: Anxiety, Bible, Comfort, Faith, God, God's love, jesus, Love, Stress, Trust God

The Certainty of Doubt

August 11, 2024 Leave a comment

“I think I figured out who the doubters are.” That’s what a reader emailed me after I released my newest book, Four Doubt.

She followed up that sentence by saying, “But I found more than four doubters in this book. If I counted correctly, there were at least eight. It was like everyone had doubts. Did you realize that?”

I write series, so as a way of making it easy for my readers to know which book to read next, and also as a way of having an author “brand,” I include the number of the book as part of the title.

However, the number also has meaning in the plot of the book. Thus, in this series, the Silas McKay Suspense Series, the number in each of the titles—One Wonders, Two Believe, Three Confess, and Four Doubt, can be linked to certain characters, while also signifying the book order.

For example, in Two Believe, Silas McKay finds it hard to believe in the goodness of God after his wife died of brain cancer. Then, as he and a colleague investigate a robbery, she confesses she doesn’t believe in God. I won’t give any specific spoilers, but by the end of the book, two believe.

The reader who emailed me was right about Four Doubt having a reoccurring theme of doubt running throughout the book. Although the four main characters in the plot expressed doubt of some sort, there were others as well.

The reason doubt was so pervasive among the characters is that I try to make my novels as realistic as possible—in a fictional sort of way, of course—and our culture today is permeated with doubt. We express skepticism toward institutions, government, politicians, medicine, and the list goes on and on. However, doubt isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

There are many instances in Scripture where doubt is expressed, and while Jesus pointed out to his disciples that their doubt showed their lack of faith, he didn’t condemn them for their doubt. Instead, he urged them to believe in Him.

When Silas, the main character in my novel, is asked whether he doubts something, he says, “In my line of work, I never shy away from having doubts. Doubt stems from a desire to know the truth, and if I engage in it, it’s only because I’m pursuing the truth.”

One of the certainties of life is that everyone will experience doubt, but pursuing truth dispels doubt. Where does that search begin?

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” John 14:6.

Have no doubt. It begins with Truth himself.