Dissolving Doubts

In Daniel Chapter 5, the wife of the King talks about Daniel’s ability to “dissolve doubts.” When dissolving a substance, there can come a point where the solution becomes saturated and no more of the solute can become dissolved. For example, if you are dissolving salt in water, up to a certain point as you stir in the salt the water will remain clear as it breaks down the salt and absorbs the sodium and chlorine ions. But if you continue to pour more and more salt in, the water will become cloudy and the salt won’t dissolve. We are constantly having new doubts poured into our souls as we face situations that are beyond our understanding or our abilities. Some of these doubts are tiny and can be easily absorbed. Others sit in our minds and our hearts like great big rocks, solid, unignorable, undeniable, and seemingly undissolvable. No amount of praying or acting in faith or hoping against hope seems to shift them or break them down or dissolve them. They are too big to absorb at present. And when too many doubts pile up, the waters of our souls become cloudy with confusion and undissolved doubts. Our souls become saturated and can no longer absorb any more doubts, or fears, or angers, or pains. But if we reach out to our Savior, then He can pour His Living Waters into our souls, diluting our doubt and pain-saturated souls and clearing away the clouds of confusion. As long as we our pouring more Living Waters into our souls than the world is pouring in doubts, then we will be able to absorb all that the world throws at us and yet remain clear in our hearts and our minds. And as we continue to come back over and over to the fountain of Living Waters, then even those great big rock salt doubts will erode and dissolve over time. When we can no longer absorb any more doubt or pain or chaos, let us reach for the living waters that will desaturate our souls and cleanse them of the doubts that we can’t seem to dissolve or absorb.