My father-in-law's favorite saying is, "Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see." That wary attitude has served him well in life that has been successful from both a business standpoint and (more importantly) a spiritual one.
That saying has some good practical application: It's good to be wary of the latest "hot new thing" in spirituality or in life. It is also wise not to be blindly optimistic about our circumstances: Just because someone believes things are going to work out doesn't mean there won't be pain along the way. Many Christians have had their own faith wrecked by this kind of spiritual Pollyannaism that says, "If I believe it, it will be."
So wariness is wise...but when it becomes skepticism and doubt, it can be one of the most destructive things in the Christian life. When we start to doubt whether God can do anything good with our circumstances, when we give up on the notion of being useful to His Kingdom, when we fail to dream of greater things and settle for a life LESS abundant...then we fall short. We fall apart. We fall away from Him.
On the day Elijah left this earth, his protege Elisha must have faced some serious doubts. How did he respond? How can we overcome the doubts, fears and natural skepticism that tends to attack our faith? That is what we'll discuss this Sunday.
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