Can You Still Disciple Others While You’re In a Season of Doubt?

Before his ascension, Jesus left a mandate to his followers. He said some of the most well-known verses in Scripture. 

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19–20)

Our Command

It’s interesting in these verses that Jesus doesn’t give any caveats or disclaimers as he hands out this mission to his disciples. He doesn’t tell us to follow his commands only when we feel like doing so. 

He doesn’t ask us to wait until we’re on a spiritual high or in a leadership position. Jesus doesn’t give us a list of reasons we should stop engaging in evangelism and discipleship. It’s a command to all of us, all of the time. No exceptions. 

Our Confusion

How do we carry out this task when we’re not doing well personally? How about when we’re struggling in a season of doubt?

Jesus doesn’t give us a list of reasons we should stop engaging in evangelism and discipleship.

Specifically, let’s consider the ministry of discipleship. This ministry is where we seek to help fellow believers walk with Jesus. How can we, as Christians, have anything to give our brother or sister when we are in a season of doubt? Maybe we are struggling with the strength of our faith. We could be doubting God’s goodness after facing a trial. 

We may be overworked and exhausted and not spending time with the Lord like we should. We could be battling depression and struggling to make sense of what’s happening in our world and the world as a whole. How can we, facing spiritual doubt and discouragement, have anything to give to others?

Our Comfort

I want to make a bold statement. I think it’s precisely those struggling with doubt who are in the best place for the ministry of discipleship. If discipling is Christians doing spiritual good for one another, then the weakest, most discouraged Christians are actually the ones we need to share their life, insight, wisdom, and experience in the dark valley with others. Christians struggling with doubt have the opportunity to have the greatest impact on others. Why?

It’s precisely what Paul writes in the opening words of his second letter to the Corinthians when he writes,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3–7)

When we struggle with doubt or discouragement, we have the opportunity to experience the comfort only God can give us.

Those who’ve been in the valley know best how to sit with others who are in the valley.

If you’re struggling with doubt about the truths of the gospel, it’s in those valleys that you realize the oft-said truth that it’s not the strength of your faith that saves you but the object of your faith. We’re not saved by how strong our faith is at the moment but by how strong our Savior Jesus is to save us sinners. Sometimes, our faith will struggle, and doubt will creep in. In those very times, God comforts us when we come to him.

Paul is saying to the Corinthians that we can comfort others in any affliction when we receive God’s comfort. It’s only then that we have anything to give others. Without this comfort, we might as well be Job’s friends. 

In Job’s season of doubt, they blamed him, gave bad advice, and opened their mouths, spewing untruths far too often. Instead, when we receive comfort from God amid our doubt and despair, we can carry out this ministry of mercy through that experience of both struggle and comfort.

Our Commission

All of us as believers have received this commission to go and make disciples. The charge from the Scriptures is that this ministry is not for the Super Christian (there aren’t any) but for all Christians. The best disciplers are those who’ve wrestled with doubt and discouragement and been through the valley of the shadow of death. 

Discipleship is a ministry of comfort through the comfort we have received from God. Our ministry does not stop, ever. Those who’ve been in the valley know best how to sit with others who are in the valley. 

Dave Furman is married to Gloria, and they have four children. He is the founding pastor of Redeemer Church of Dubai and co-founder of the Gulf Theological Seminary. He is also the author of two books, Being There and Kiss the Wave.

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