Doubting (a dialogue)

A friend of mine sends me an email on his struggle with doubt. Here's the beginning of a dialogue where I sought to encourage him:

Hey dude!

Doubt is a common, yet very serious thing that a believer goes through. I've gone through many doubts in my time. Doubts of whether or not God is there, Doubts whether or not He's the only God out there.. Doubts on whether or not I'm truly saved. Doubts on whether or not I'm one of God's "chosen." All of which during my period of doubting I never really lost faith in the reality of each of them. I always knew that God existed, I always knew that he is the ONLY God in the universe and I always am affirmed of my salvation by the truth of the Gospel.
So the question remains. Why do we have doubts?
James pointed it out this weekend: Sin.

Our sin leads to guilt which leads to doubt.
The question of how to defeat doubt is growing your faith, like James said. "the opposite of Fear is Faith." Doubting is a form of fear; fear of the unknown if you will.
Growing your faith will help you in your battle with sin, which will also help you concurrently with your battle of guilt. Another thing that a growing faith will do, however, is point out OTHER areas in your life that need working on and are spots of guilt as well. Keep in mind that the Christian walk is not perfection, it is "increasing" towards Christ-likeness. What I mean by that is, someday when you may get over some of the doubts you have or defeat some of the struggles with sin that you are facing right now, your eyes will be opened to OTHER things in your life that have always been there, but not realized because of the other sins. So when those are brought out into the light as well, you are furthering your sanctification in an increasing way, though will not reach perfection until the day that Christ returns to take us home to heaven.

With doubt, the best way to get answers is getting in God's word. You will find that that is the answer to almost/if not every sin: go to God, and you have that ability and availability by his WORD (John 1:1)

With that said, what are some of your doubts? We can get through some of them together and study up on them etc. but ultimately man, you are the one who needs to make this a priority in your life to further your walk with the Lord. i.e. Study God's Word and TRUST in Him, even when you don't understand or don't have "solid" proof. Trust is not based on evidence, it's based on faith.Grow your time in God's word--> Grow your faith--> Grow your trust-->Dissolve your doubts.

God bless!
Moellerd