Topic: Doubt Is the Enemy of Imagination[RICK WARREN Devotional 28 MARCH  2024]

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Doubt Is the Enemy of Imagination

BY RICK WARREN — APRIL 28, 2024
FROM DARING FAITH

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

James 1:5-7 (NIV)

Doubt is the enemy of imagination.

When you were a kid, you had a great imagination. But the older you get, the more your imagination grows rusty. You stop imagining what things could be, and you just start living the way they are. You get stuck in the status quo, which is Latin for “the mess we’re in.”

Doubt and fear neutralize what God wants to do in your life. It takes courage to imagine. Do you know why most people don’t imagine? Because they’re afraid of failure.

Every great thing that we did at Saddleback Church, I was scared to death to do. But I just said we were going to do it anyway. Why? Because I’m not about to let fear dominate my life. So I move forward, trembling.

Courage is when you do the right thing while you are afraid. Sometimes it’s doing the thing you fear the most! You may wonder, “Should I wait until all my doubts are gone?” But you have to move against your fears. You have to ignore all the insecurity you’re feeling and just go for it.

James 1:5-7 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (NIV).

Your imagination is either going to be governed by fear or it’s going to be governed by faith. That’s your choice. If you let your imagination be governed by fear, then you’re going to go around being freaked out, stressed out, and worried all the time. When you allow fear to control your imagination, you live a miserable life.

Instead decide that you’re not going to allow fear to dominate. Let your faith dominate. Trust in God. Then you can move forward in faith and allow your imagination to be filled with all kinds of possibilities—because all things are possible with God.

Talk It Over

• What’s the big thing you believe God wants to do in your life but you’ve let doubt hold you back from pursuing it?
• Would you be afraid to truly open your mind and life to every possibility of God? Why or why not?
• When you ask God for something in prayer, why does he want you to believe in faith that he will answer?

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