others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). This is what life is like without Christ, which explains why times of spiritual doubt can be so discouraging. The more trouble we have seeing Jesus, the more we wander into foolish thinking. The consequences are devastating: sinful patterns of self indulgence, angry conflicts with other people, and bitter thoughts about ourselves as well as others. If these are some of the struggles that we have—habitual sin, broken relationships, self-loathing—then we must