This verse has been playing through my head this past week since it was part of the Daily Lectionary. It comes from Mark 11:23
Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.
As I lead Bible Studies or discussion with people I always tell people that it is essential that we look deeply into texts and it is ok to question what may be written and at times possibly even doubt it! It is human nature to doubt and question and this usually happens within our minds. As we doubt and question, it allows us to build an even deeper relationship with God, or whatever we are studying, because we must delve even deeper into the subject and gain a greater understanding.
This verse from Mark struck me differently though because it says do not doubt in your heart. We doubt in our minds all of the time many things, whether it be our own personal actions or those actions of others; it may even be that we doubt God at times. However, it is in our hearts that God has written the law. From a few appearances in the Hebrew Bible this is mentioned, one being Psalm 40:8
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.
So my question, Is it possible to ever doubt in our heart? For the very presence of God is within our own being and in that we embrace the eternal relationship which is God. May we nurture that relationship as we live into the mystery.
a mysterious way 