City Life Starter

The Word: Mark 4:15

The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them (AMP).

Here, we find the introduction of the doubt. In this case, the seed was sown along a path. A path is something that is formed over time, consistently traveled over and over again. Sometimes, we are resistant to believe God’s Word because we cannot conceive a new idea. We’ve had a certain mindset drilled into us and can’t really believe things could be different.

In this scenario, the Word falls on deaf ears. The people hear God’s Word, but then immediately discount it. Before the seed has a chance to seep in, it’s quickly snatched away by Satan.

Believing God’s Word means you might have to step off the beaten path. It requires being open and receptive, and then furiously tenacious. It requires holding on to the Truth of God’s Word and allowing Him to direct your path.

It is important to recognize that doubt is a form of pride. Pride takes form in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but at its root, pride is simply choosing to go any other way than God’s way. Pride is choosing to believe anything other than God’s Word.

When we doubt the Word of God, we are essentially saying that we cannot believe God because we believe another way to be true. It sets us at odds with God. One of the things the scriptures teach us about pride is that God resists the proud (1 Peter 1:5).

In this scenario with the seed falling on the path, we see that the seed is immediately taken away by Satan. Pride makes it easy for the devil to snatch the Word away from us. Doubt and pride keep our hearts in a hardened, resistant state. As long as we continue in doubt and pride, then we’ll never get the Word in, for the devil will keep on snatching it away.

Doubt is one of the most subtle tools the devil uses to make us resistant to God. We see a perfect picture of how he uses this tool when he tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden:

Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And he [Satan] said to the woman, Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden? (Genesis 3:1 AMP)

Right here, we see the first instance of doubting God’s Word in the Bible. Satan caused Eve to question God’s Word. This was actually the first question in the Bible.  When we get sucked into a barrage of endless questions and a line of reasoning that defies God’s Word, we find that doubt and confusion set in and the Word gets plucked up from our lives.

God gave us reasoning for a reason. It is okay to make well-informed decisions and use wisdom. The problem arises when we reason ourselves right out of the will of God! One of the tricks the devil uses to keep us in bondage and render us powerless is getting us trapped in a block of reasoning: going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on a matter.

5  If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.

6  Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.

7  For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,

8  [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides] (James 1:5-8 AMP).

Indecision is a trap! We’ve got to make our minds up and be decisive. We can’t allow this endless questioning to bring doubt in. If we do, we might find ourselves aligning with something other than God’s Word. Whether we do so knowingly or in ignorance, the consequences are the same.

To be a doubt-crusher, we must be alert to what comes in our minds, ready to squash any thought that contradicts the Word:

4  For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds,

5  [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 AMP).

Learn to silence the voice of the enemy. The enemy is always trying to get us to question and contradict God’s Word in hopes that we will believe a lie. If we just stick with the Truth and stand our ground, we will see the light.

In this journey called life, there are so many directions we can choose to take, but there’s the only One who knows the best way for us, for He is the way:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6 NKJV).