Your Guidance Is Your Protection

Overcoming Self-Doubt

When you need to make a decision, do you worry and feel stressed about which option is right? Or can you evaluate information, make the decision, feel good about it, and move forward without looking back? Once a decision is made, do you wonder if you made the right choice or wish you had done something different? Being excessively indecisive is a sign of self-doubt and can be called being “double-minded.” According to James 1:5–8, a double-minded person is like a wind-driven wave and will not be able to receive help from God. The Bible shows us how to overcome self-doubt and double mindedness.

Some people demonstrate self-doubt when they are faced with decisions and are so afraid of making the wrong one that they won’t decide anything at all. They think they can protect themselves from making a mistake. But not making a decision is actually making a decision to not make a decision! Every decision you make will not be the right one, but God can take a wrong decision and still lead you to the right outcome. He can also teach you valuable lessons you might not learn any other way.

Other people struggling to make a decision have the right idea in turning to God’s Word but make the mistake of wishing they could find in the Bible exactly what to do in a certain situation. For example, they may want a simple yes or no for a very specific personal decision they face. To help us make those decisions and overcome self-doubt in various situations, the Bible sets many standards and offers many guidelines.

Below are four decisions you can feel confident about because they are based on God’s Word. Knowing your decisions are in agreement with His Word will empower you to stand against self-doubt. Practice making decisions like these, and it will strengthen your ability to make decisions without second-guessing yourself.

• Decide to grow in your study of God’s Word and in prayer.

• Decide to believe the best, not the worst, in every situation.

• Decide to focus on what God says about you, not what other people say.

• Decide to be hopeful, not fearful, about your future.

The remedy for self-doubt is confidence. Part of the fruit of the healing of the soul is increased confidence—not in ourselves, but in God. We will not be right about everything all the time, but we will not be wrong about everything either. We need to learn to ask the Holy Spirit to lead us, follow godly wisdom, and then trust God to help us make good decisions.

Prayer Starter: Father, thank You for Your Holy Spirit, that lives in me. Help me to rely on and trust You so that I no longer need to dread making decisions and live with self-doubt, amen.