Orlando.

Jane Doe, the survivor of the Stanford rape case.

I read their words today.

The world is broken, suffering, a slew of one-after-the-others. ISIS. Another Ebola outbreak. Another mass shooting at a high school. Another high-profile sexual assault case. Another child who dies of cancer.

I find myself sometimes, in the teeny tiny recesses of my heart, quietly asking God is the gospel is enough.

“Lord, is the Good News…is Jesus actually enough to heal and make right and restore?”

…

“Lord. Are you actually enough to fix all this?”

Doubt is real in the face of a groaning planet where humans are starting wars and destroying each others’ bodies or you find yourself waiting for “the phone call” that someone in your family has an incurable disease.

Doubt is real when you wonder if your grandma’s heart will ever soften towards the true Gospel and if Christians will ever act like Christians.

I heard a message on Romans 8 yesterday that was interesting. The pastor said that God didn’t make this.

We did.

When God created the heavens and the earth, it was good and right and the way it was supposed to be. WE were the ones who ushered in evil through our disobedience in the garden. WE are the ones who have caused creation to moan under the weight of sin and cry out for relief when Christ returns.

And WE are the ones who desperately need the Holy Spirit to help us keep from falling into despair.

It’s a nettle, a twisty thorn than threatens to climb into your heart and take root. It is the consequence of unhealthy doubt that is not taken to Scripture, not to the throne of grace, not swapped out for our Messiah’s lighter yoke, not asked to be replaced by more faith in God’s goodness and plan.

I must pray for the Spirit’s help in working through my doubts. I must confess my distrust in God’s sovereignty. I must beg for eyes to see.

 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” -Paul, Rom 8:26-27

I’m grateful that God himself, the Holy Spirit, is doing just that.