Doubt

Judges 6:39, 40  "And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only and there was dew on all the ground."      

Many Christians live with doubts and fears.  Questions and suspicions as to the reality of the work of grace upon their hearts. Whether their convictions were not merely convictions of natural conscience, and whether their joys have been anything else but the joys of a fool. "O," they say, "what would I give to have a divine testimony that the God was leading me in the right path!" It is through these very doubts that the evidence is obtained. Doubts lead to cries and groans lead after to a divine testimony; and in answer to these cries the heavenly witness is given. A man without doubts is without testimonies. Doubts are to testimonies what the ring is to the finger, the lock to the key, the enigma to the solution.

1 Samuel 12” Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,^[b]saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Testimonies are Ebenezers, "stones of help" but the stone must have a hole dug for it to stand in, and that hole is doubt. Doubts of salvation are to manifestations of salvation what hunger is to food, nakedness to clothing, a thunderstorm to a shelter, a gallows to a reprieve, and death to a resurrection. The one of these things precedes, prepares, and opens a way for the other. The first is nothing without the last, nor the last without the first. Thus, next to testimonies, the best thing is spiritual doubts. To know we are right is the best thing; to fear we are wrong is the second best. To enjoy the witness of the Spirit is the most blessed thing this side of the grave; to pant after that enjoyment is the next greatest blessing

Psalm 84:5-7 “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs, the autumn rains also cover it with pools.  They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.”

The path through the valley of Baca is "from strength to strength," that is, according to the eastern mode of travelling, from one halting-place to another, where wells are dug, and "the rain fills the pools"   We do not learn either God or ourselves, sin or salvation, in a day. The question is not so much whether you have much faith, but whether you have any. It is not quantity, but quality; not whether you have a very great religion, but whether you have any at all. A grain of true faith will save the soul; and I have known many, many times when I should have been glad to feel certain that I had the thousandth part of a grain. A grain of mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds; and even faith as small as that can move mountains. Happy is he that has one divine testimony to his eternal interest in the electing love of the Father, in the atoning blood and justifying righteousness of the Son, and in the divine teachings of the Holy Spirit.