The Paradox of Leaders Who Doubt and Doubters Who go on to make Great Leaders

In the scriptures there are many accounts of those who doubted God. From Eve, who doubted the penalty God promised for sin, to Lot’s wife, who doubted the penalty for looking back wistfully at worldly pleasures, to Thomas, who doubted that the crucified Jesus had really risen from the dead, to Saul of Tarsus, who was convinced that Jesus’ followers were a threat to true faith – so much that he was honored to be appointed their prosecutor by the Jewish leadership council, arguably the chief of doubters.
Doubts are the result of listening to our fears. So … what sets the doubters ‘who died from their doubts’ apart from the doubters ‘who went on to become great’?
The difference is in how they chose to respond to God when they realized they were giving in to fear – giving in to False Evidence Appearing Real. Eve kept talking to the serpent; Lot’s wife gave in to the temptation to turn back; but Thomas kept hanging out with the others who had seen the risen Jesus; and Saul listened to God and His messenger, Ananias, who told him that God had other plans for his life.
Doubters who die listen to their fears. Doubters who go on to become great servants of God trust God to be faithful more than they trust their own doubts.
- G. Ziegler