[Friday's Devotional] - Doubting Castle

5 – Now there was a castle called Doubting-Castle

 

 

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian and his fellow pilgrim Hopeful take a short cut away from the narrow path and end up in the land of Giant Despair, the owner of Doubting-Castle.  They are apprehended and imprisoned in a dungeon.

 

In the course of our lives, we often leave the straight and narrow path.  Sometimes we leave the path because our friends are not walking along it; sometimes we leave the path because the going gets difficult, and sometimes we leave the path because we are distracted by the things of this world.  It is easy to grow cold in our love for God.

 

Whatever the reason, leaving the path ends in trouble.  Thrown into the dungeon of Doubting-Castle, Christian and Hopeful, find themselves lonely and depressed.  They would die without reaching the Celestial City.  But then Christian makes a discovery.

 

“Now a little before it was day, good Christian, brake out in this passionate speech, ‘What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty.  I have a key in my bosom, called promise that will (I am persuaded) open any lock in Doubting-Castle.’”

 

So Christian and Hopeful used the key to leave the castle and to resume their journey.

 

John writes,

 

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1: 8, 9 [NIV]

 

Every one of us has left the narrow path at one time or another.  But God never abandons us; he promises forgiveness to all who turn back to the path which leads to the Celestial City.

 

Lord God, thank you that if we confess our sins you will forgive us.  Thank you that you for your promise that you will never leave us or forsake us.  Help us to be strong and to walk with you through the wilderness of this world.  Amen.

 

David Long