Peter and His brethren had just heard what must have seemed to them a bizarre teaching by Jesus, referencing their need to eat his flesh and drink his blood. They had also just witnessed many professed disciples of Jesus, who unable to overcome their doubts caused by that teaching, turned from Him. It is certain the Apostles had similar doubts. They could not yet have understood the deeply spiritual significance of what was being taught. Jesus must have sensed their doubting as he turned to them and asked; “will ye also go away?” In Peter’s response is found a key to dealing with doubts. He refused to give them center stage or allow them to uproot what he did know. He chose rather to remain focused on that which he knew and so answered saying; “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” John 6
It is significant in the above account that Peter’s profession said nothing about the teaching or its meaning. Peter probably wonder about that teaching until the last supper, yet he pressed on. Doubting our doubts means we strive to set them aside from the main focus of our lives. We acknowledge them yes, and patiently work on resolving them as time permits, but they must not become the primary focus of our lives. We must continue living, loving and serving. Doubts are selfish, and clamor for our every moment, but we strive to not give way to that draw.
While we work to resolve our doubts with balance, we must continue to live according to our beliefs. If doubts have caused us to no longer feel able to bear witness of what we know, then we can and should bear witness to what we believe.
Elder Packer taught that the gaining of a testimony is in the baring of it. Those who have felt the spirit pour through them as they stood to share a witness of some point or truth, know what he meant. Interestingly, there is a negative law that follows a similar vein. The too frequent expression of doubts or spending an inordinate amount of time dwelling on them, can magnify those doubts and empower them.
FF Bosworth who was paraphrased by President Uchtdorf in his plea for us to doubt our doubts, made this interesting claim; “We never rise above our confession. A negative confession will lower us to the level of that confession. It is what we confess with our lips that really controls us. Our confession imprisons us if it is negative or sets us free if it is positive. Many are always telling of their failings and their lack of faith. Invariably they go to the level of their confession. Confessing a lack of faith increases doubt. Every time you confess doubts and fears, you confess your faith in Satan and deny the ability and grace of God. When you confess doubt, you are imprisoned with your own words. Proverbs 6:2 says "Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken [captive] with the words of thy mouth." When we doubt His Word, it is because we believe something else that is contrary to that Word. Wrong confession shuts the Father out and lets Satan in. (.” Christ the Healer, FF Bosworth Page 21-22. page 138)
That is not to say that one cannot confide in loved ones, spiritual leaders, and especially in privacy to God, the challenges and doubts we are facing. In fact, we must do so if the doubts are ever to be fully resolved. But we must also give deliberate time and devotion to testifying, to confessing positives, even if what we say may not be absolute statements of truth, we can testify to what we believe about Christ, God, and the multitude of blessings we have seen in our lives. In truth, to spend more time confessing doubts, then professing beliefs is a choice that can empower those doubts over beliefs, and can skew the battle in favor of doubt.
I think this principle could be similar to that behind the counsel given to missionaries to not speak too often or too much in-depth about encounters with Satan or evil, as oft times such discussions actually open the door to his influence and bring an evil spirit. So too, dwelling incessantly on the doubts to the exclusion of beliefs, opens wider the door to the doubts and gives them the edge.
Thus another way to battle the doubts, (to doubt them) and thus keep them in their place, is for us to try and focus time on testifying, confessing, to what we do know, to what we believe, to what we have learned and to choose to go on living according to those beliefs, while working to resolve the doubts.